Analysis and enhancement of communication behaviour in children with autism

Abstract

The research reported in this thesis examined the idiosyncratic and subtle behaviours of children with autism by combining the theoretical areas of prelinguistic communication and challenging behaviour. It examined how parents and teachers interpret the behaviour of children as communicative and how this information may be used to enhance the child's communication skills.The research consisted of five studies. Study One used an interview protocol known as the Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA) to assess the communicative potential of the behaviours used by 8 children with autism, aged 3 to 7 years. The findings suggested that teachers and parents interpreted many of the subtle and idiosyncratic behaviours exhibited by these children as forms of communication. However, disagreement between the respondents about the specific behaviours used by a child in relation to particular functions meant that a further study was needed to verify some of these behaviours.In Study Two, therefore, naturalistic observations were conducted in the child's classroom to identify the form, function, and frequency of communicative behaviour and to assess the extent to which this information verified the data obtained from teachers on the IPC A. Findings from this study suggested that some of the behaviours reported by teachers on the IPCA could be reliably recorded during naturalistic observations, however, it often remained unclear whether these behaviours were forms ofcommunication.Consequently, a third study was devised involving structured observations. In Study Three, specific structured situations were designed to verify the information given by teachers on the IPCA. Results showed that some of the behaviours interpreted as communicative by teachers could be verified through these structured situations.Study Four used the data from the naturalistic observations conducted in Study Two, to examine the way teachers responded to the behaviours of these children that they previously reported as communicative when interviewed on the IPCA. Results indicated that teachers did not consistently acknowledge these behaviours. Given that the acknowledgement of communicative attempts may enhance development of communication skills, the need for intervention was seen as critical.The findings from these assessment studies were then used in Study Five, to design and implement an intervention to replace prelinguistic forms with more conventional and symbolic behaviours that served the same communicative function. Results from the intervention demonstrated that as children acquired the replacement form, the frequency of the prelinguistic form decreased.Overall, the results from these five studies raise important issues about the similarities and differences in the conceptual and practical links between prelinguistic communication and challenging behaviour. It provided a model of decision making in relation to choice of intervention and in particular, the way in which existing communicative forms may be identified and treated within an intervention. This thesis has also highlighted the need to refine the techniques used in the current research to enable children with autism access to more effective communication interventions.