Social rivalry triggers visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorders

Marine Grandgeorge,Martine Hausberger,Carole Jacq,Yentl Gautier,Pauline Brugaillères,Marie-Claude Lebret,Inès Tiercelin

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-09745-6

Abstract

Visual social attention is central to social functioning and learning and may act as a reinforcer. Social rivalry, which occurs when an individual is excluded from dyadic interactions, can promote interspecific learning by triggering attention. We applied it to an animal-assisted intervention, where the behaviour of ASD children was compared between an experimental (attention shift of the animal trainer from the dog-child to the dog only) and a control (attention maintained on the dyad) groups (study 1). The results show that ASD children are sensitive to the direction of (visual) social attention and may act, physically and visually, in order to regain it. When the animal trainer concentrated on the dog, the overall visual attention of the ASD children increased, suggesting a heightened awareness towards their environment. They oriented more towards the animal trainer and the dog, contrarily to the control group. The repetition of the procedure was even associated with increased joint attention with the animal trainer (study 2). Thus, ASD children do care about and seek human visual attention. They show an ability to adapt their social behaviour, which questions whether their known deficits in social competencies are hard wired or whether the deficits are in their expression.

Highlights

Social attention is core to social functioning and may reflect affinities[1], and promote, the acquisition of social skills[2]
Phase 1 (P1, t0-t10min) corresponded to a usual animal-assisted interventions” (AAI) session where the animal trainer tried to involve the child in activities with the service dog and attention was focused on the child-service dog dyad
In situations where the animal trainer concentrated on the service dog, the overall visual attention of the children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) increased, suggesting a heightened awareness and interactive responsiveness towards their living and non-living environment

Summary

Introduction

Social attention is core to social functioning and may reflect affinities[1], and promote, the acquisition of social skills[2]. Social modelling[15] has been the theoretical basis for developing model-rival techniques that enhance exceptional learning[16, 17] An example of this procedure consists of two humans working with an African grey parrot Psittacus erithacus, one acting as a trainer (with whom the parrot has a bond) and the other as the “rival”. Pepperberg[16] suggests that social modelling is the best way to enhance learning, and further indicates that her procedure with birds can be applied to human beings with social inhibitions or difficulties, e.g. children with hyperactive disorders or ASD. There is limited research on the use of the “model-rival procedure” in humans, some studies show that increased eye contact with ASD children has improved functional skill and social behaviour[17, 23]

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Conclusion