الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): is a complex, pervasive, and multifactorial neurodevelopmental condition. ASD severely impairs the development of a person’s ability to interact with other people. It attacks without discrimination, afflicting all sectors of society.
ASD has a global incidence, that is approximately 1 in 59 children. Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls. Most children were still diagnosed after the age of four, although autism can be reliably diagnosed as early as the age of two.
Children with autism present unique challenges related to communication, behavior and social skills.
Brainwave Entrainment (BWE), is a procedure that modulates neural activities by synchronizing brainwave frequency with that of a stimulus (i.e. a mechanism used by the brain to process sensory stimuli of several modalities; PHOTIC, AUDIO, OLFACTORY, TACTILE
Audio-visual entrainment (AVE), a subset of brainwave entrainment, uses flashes of lights and pulses of tones to guide the brain into various states of brainwave activity.
In the current study researcher aimed is to assess the effect of audio-visual stimulation on cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions in children with autism spectrum disorder.
The study proposal was approved by the scientific ethical committee of the Faculty of Post-graduate childhood studies. Researcher received an informed consent from parents.
This is an intervention study of 34 children with ASD, aged 4-9 years, randomly recruited from Pediatric Outpatient Clinic, Center of Special Needs, FPGCS, Ain-Shams University, throughout a period of 12 months, from June 2018 till the end of May 2019.
Participants were assessed through Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale V5 (SB5), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG) & received (AVS) sessions (2 / week), using the Mindspa Personal Development Device, completing a course of 8 sessions; each of 22 mins.
Results revealed Male: Female ratio was 3.3: 1. Degree of intelligence was; low average: (11.76%), borderline impaired: (23.53%), mildly impaired: (50%) & moderately impaired: (14.71%) with IQ mean ± S.D. score; (65.1 ± 10.9). After AVS sessions, results revealed cases’ improvement in cognitive, emotional & behavioral symptomatology, with statistical significance decrease between pre- & post- CARS total score mean ± S.D; (35.66 ± 3.87) and (32.77 ± 4.22) respectively. Regarding the QEEG background (O1, O2); (26.5%), (23.5%), (50%), (29.4%) & (44.1%) of cases returned to normal regulated brainwave activity in the delta, theta, alpha, beta and high- beta bands respectively.
In terms of pharmacological intervention, (44.12%) of our studied cases are maintained on Resperidal or Apixodone.
Among our studied (50%) were maintained on Omega-3 and (20.59%) were maintained on multi-vitamins.
We have also studied the Peak-Alpha frequency (PAF), pre- and post- treatment and the following was stated; (29.4%) of cases recently showed alpha-peak post-treatment, (19.4%) of the cases showed mature alpha- peak post- treatment and (26.5%) of the cases showed normal alpha-peak height post-treatment.
Inter- and Intra- hemispheric variables were also measured and results showed significant difference between amplitude asymmetry, coherence and phase-lag pre- and post- treatment. Percentages among studied cases were as follows; (14.71%) showed normal amplitude asymmetry post-treatment, (76.47%) showed normal coherence post-treatment and (32.35%) showed normal phase-lag post-treatment.
QEEG Variables using Fast-Fourier Transformation Analysis (FFT) revealed the following results: as regard the FFT Absolute Power: there was a significant decrease between generalized and especially Frontal Delta- wave band, Theta- wave band activity and in Beta- wave band activity. Moreover, results revealed a significant decrease between generalized and Posterior Delta- wave band activity.
In the current study, our studied cases showed progressive build-up of the Alpha amplitude towards the posterior regions which thereby indicates improvement.
There was a significant decrease in Frontal Delta/ Theta ratio (DTR), a significant decrease in Central Theta/ Beta ratio (TBR) and a significant decrease in Central Delta/ Alpha ratio (DAR), pre- and post- treatment which indicates positive outcome.
The results of the current study demonstrated that light/sound technology has positively impact the behaviors of children with ASD and improve their social-emotional skills.