Social Communication Interaction Research Articles

Using Reframing to Reduce Negative Statements in Social Conversation for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study examined the effects of teaching the reframing of negative statements through self-management and video-feedback on social conversation in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A multiple baseline design across five participants showed that, following intervention, all were able to increase their positive and neutral statements while decreasing negative statements, with generalization to peers in new settings. In addition, four of the five participants’ affect and interest improved following the intervention, and three were rated as more socially desirable. Furthermore, post-treatment improvements were noted on standardized measures of depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. Results are discussed in terms of improving general social communicative interactions and quality of life in adults with ASD.

Designing Serious Game Interventions for Individuals with Autism.

The design of "Serious games" that use game components (e.g., storyline, long-term goals, rewards) to create engaging learning experiences has increased in recent years. We examine of the core principles of serious game design and examine the current use of these principles in computer-based interventions for individuals with autism. Participants who undergo these computer-based interventions often show little evidence of the ability to generalize such learning to novel, everyday social communicative interactions. This lack of generalized learning may result, in part, from the limited use of fundamental elements of serious game design that are known to maximize learning. We suggest that future computer-based interventions should consider the full range of serious game design principles that promote generalization of learning.

Motor cognition–motor semantics: Action perception theory of cognition and communication

A new perspective on cognition views cortical cell assemblies linking together knowledge about actions and perceptions not only as the vehicles of integrated action and perception processing but, furthermore, as a brain basis for a wide range of higher cortical functions, including attention, meaning and concepts, sequences, goals and intentions, and even communicative social interaction. This article explains mechanisms relevant to mechanistic action perception theory, points to concrete neuronal circuits in brains along with artificial neuronal network simulations, and summarizes recent brain imaging and other experimental data documenting the role of action perception circuits in cognition, language and communication.

Prediction of 7-year psychopathology from mother-infant joint attention behaviours: a nested case-control study.

BackgroundTo investigate whether later diagnosis of psychiatric disorder can be predicted from analysis of mother-infant joint attention (JA) behaviours in social-communicative interaction at 12 months.MethodUsing data from a large contemporary birth cohort, we examined 159 videos of a mother-infant interaction for joint attention behaviour when children were aged one year, sampled from within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort. Fifty-three of the videos involved infants who were later considered to have a psychiatric disorder at seven years and 106 were same aged controls. Psychopathologies included in the case group were disruptive behaviour disorders, oppositional-conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, pervasive development disorder, anxiety and depressive disorders. Psychiatric diagnoses were obtained using the Development and Wellbeing Assessment when the children were seven years old.ResultsNone of the three JA behaviours (shared look rate, shared attention rate and shared attention intensity) showed a significant association with the primary outcome of case–control status. Only shared look rate predicted any of the exploratory sub-diagnosis outcomes and was found to be positively associated with later oppositional-conduct disorders (OR [95% CI]: 1.5 [1.0, 2.3]; p = 0.041).ConclusionsJA behaviours did not, in general, predict later psychopathology. However, shared look was positively associated with later oppositional-conduct disorders. This suggests that some features of JA may be early markers of later psychopathology. Further investigation will be required to determine whether any JA behaviours can be used to screen for families in need of intervention.

Gestural Depiction in Acquired Language Disorders: On the Form and Use of Iconic Gestures in Aphasic Talk-In-Interaction

This paper uses conversation analysis to investigate the form and use of iconic gestures by a man with severe Broca-type aphasia in interaction with his speech and language therapist. Deconstructing iconic gestures into the different types of methods used to produce them, the paper analyzes how these gestures can depict certain entities, such as actions or types of people, in ways that may be understandable to the recipient. It is also observed that these iconic gestures can constitute gestural contributions, which not only communicate certain semantic meanings, but also accomplish social actions, such as answering or repairing. The implications of this analysis for our understanding of compensatory behavior in aphasia, and of augmentative and alternative communication in social interaction more generally, are discussed.

Peer-Mediated AAC Instruction for Young Children With Autism and other Developmental Disabilities

Many young children with developmental disabilities (DD) have significant delays in social, communication, and play skills. For those children learning to use augmentative and alternative communication (.AAC% successful social interactions with peers will require explicit instruction on the same system for both communication partners. Peer-mediated (PM) interventions are recommended best practice based on more than 30 years of research with young children with autism and other DDs. Integrating direct AAC instruction within PM programs to advance social reciprocity in typical preschool routines is a necessary and important next step for young AAC users. In this article, I will summarize the design and outcomes of two PM AAC studies documenting positive social outcomes for preschool children with severe autism. I will also teach} peer partners how to use AAC highlight strategies to recruit peers without disabilities systems (e.g., Picture Exchange Communication System [PECS], Speech Generating Devices [SGDs]), and engineer the preschool classroom for successful AAC communication. I will describe data collection procedures for measuring changes in reciprocal child and peer social communication interactions.

Predictors of diagnosis of child psychiatric disorder in adult–infant social-communicative interaction at 12 months

To establish which social interactive behaviours predict later psychiatric diagnosis, we examined 180 videos of a parent-infant interaction when children were aged one year, from within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort. Sixty of the videos involved infants who were later diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder at seven years, and 120 were a randomly selected sex-matched control group. Interactive behaviours for both the caregiver and the one year old infant were coded from the videos according to eight holistic categories of interpersonal engagement: Well-being, Contingent Responsiveness, Cooperativeness, Involvement, Activity, Playfulness, Fussiness, and Speech. Lower levels of adult activity and speech in interaction at one year significantly predicted overall diagnosis of child psychiatric disorder.

Squawk in interaction: a primer of conversation analysis for students of animal communication

Conversation Analysis is a method and theory of the organization of communicative social interaction among humans that emerged from Sociology in the 1960s. In spite of the similarities between human conversation and communicatory interactions in non-human animals, the evolutionary science of Animal Communication and Conversation Analysis have never engaged in interdisciplinary discourse. The objective of this manuscript is to introduce students of Animal Communication to the field of Conversation Analysis. We begin with a historical overview of the field, and go on to describe its theory, methodology, major discoveries, and current directions. We then discuss the similarities and differences between Conversation Analysis and Animal Communication, concluding that both fields could benefit from cross fertilization.

The Effects of Teacher-Implemented Naturalistic Intervention on the Communication of Preschoolers With Autism

This study examined the effects of a teacher training package on the teacher-delivered naturalistic communication-promoting intervention and the expressive communication of three preschool-aged boys with autism spectrum disorders. Growing numbers of children with disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders, attend community-based and inclusive preschool settings, and the present study provides information on how to support positive adult child social-communicative interactions by embedding noninvasive strategies in the context of natural environments. In this multiple-baseline study, the teachers received training and support in implementing specific, naturalistic communication-promoting strategies to increase child opportunities for expressive communication. As a result of the training, the teachers increased their use of the intervention strategies, and all of the target children showed increases in the frequency of expressive communication. This study emphasizes the importance of language input and how the level of intervention delivery—in this case, frequency of teacher-provided opportunities for communication—appears to influence child communicative behavior.

Efecto de las hormonas sexuales en la audición

Amphibian anurans (frogs and toads) widely use sound communication in social interactions. During breeding season males congregate in pools and ponds, where they emit an acoustic signal, named advertisement call that attracts females and indicates its presence to other males. Previously, it has been established that steroid hormones, along with some neuropeptides, can alter the sensory processing of these signals in the individual recipient, through its effect on nuclei and pathways of the central and peripheral auditory nervous system. One of the ways that hormones may alter the perception and response to acoustic signals of other conspecific males is modulating the intensity threshold of response to these signals. However, this possibility has not been explored in males of any species and there are only scarce data on changes in hearing thresholds of human females during the menstrual cycle, which have not been explained. Given the conserved organization of the nuclei and pathways involved in sound processing and distribution of steroid receptors in the brain of vertebrates, experiments and results obtained in anurans could be the basis for understanding other more complex systems of acoustic communication and social interaction in birds and mammals.

Emotion-related acoustic communication in bats.

Some features of emotional prosody in human speech may be rooted in mechanisms common to mammals. The role of vocal communication in social interactions was studied in bats, a highly vocal group evolutionarily remote from primates. The present paper focuses on communication during agonistic encounters in the Indian False Vampire bat. Three call types with distinct time-frequency contours occurred; aggression calls, whistles, and response calls. In a first experiment, agonistic approach situations were analyzed to assess the extent to which these call types reflected the specific part of the caller in the interaction and the intensity of the agonistic display. A frame-by-frame video analysis followed by a sound analysis revealed that call type indicated the part of the respective caller while interaction intensity was encoded in similar parameter changes across call types. The systematic change in vocal parameters with affect intensity corresponded to prosodic changes in human speech. A playback experiment based on a habituation-dishabituation paradigm investigated how the bats categorized the vocalizations emitted during third-party agonistic interactions. The bats were able to discriminate between call types; however, they did not necessarily form categories corresponding to call type in reciprocal experiments, an evidence for a context-dependent evaluation of social calls.

ESTIMATE OF CERTAIN PSYCHIC CHARACTERISTICS AT TESTED DEAF PEOPLE

The consequences of hard hearing disturbances on psychological restructures were signed when it all is about communication in social interactions, cognitive development and certain characteristics of personality. Certain psychological characteristics were analyzed at deaf by testing deaf and hearing ones. Testing sample (N=45) had been chosen randomly and there were both male and female 18 to 55 years old, with target to prove certain psychological characteristics of deaf in relation to social interactions. For that purpose has been created this measurement: “Estimation scale of psychological characteristics at deaf”, tipe of Likerts, which is consisted of 15 variables. The results of sub samples of tested ones on used variables have been described by descriptive and comparative analysis, but hypothesis about not existing statistical important differences between hearing and deaf tested ones in estimation of psychological characteristics at deaf has been tested by discriminative analyses. The results of survey point that there is no statisticaly important differences in estimation of psychological charakteristics at deaf, beteween two used samples in subject survey.

Early Communication Skills; Important in Screening for Language Impairment and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Communication skills during social interaction at 18 months age, such as comprehension of instructions and play behaviour, have been shown to predict the results on language tests three years later. Accordingly, children with weak communication skills are at risk for persistent problems of language and communication. Problems of communication in social interaction are also common in children with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder). For different reasons, it is important to identify children who are at risk for language impairment and neuropsychiatric disorders at as an early age as possible. First, early identification allows early intervention, which may increase the chances of a positive outcome for the child. Second, early identification may decrease the risk of secondary problems with behaviour, and social and emotional wellbeing, which are frequently occurring in children with neuropsychiatric disorders. This paper is an overview of the literature focusing on the importance of early communication skills, i.e. language use in a social interaction context. Conclusion: Early communication skills in social interaction are a possible predictor of language impairment and neuropsychiatric disorders, and should therefore be included in early screening procedures. Furthermore, social interaction enhances language development, and can therefore be regarded as a tool in language intervention. Keywords: Social interaction, communication skills, language development, early screening, prediction, language impairment, neuropsychiatric disorders, intervention

Primary and secondary pragmatic functions of pointing gestures

This article presents a study of a set of pointing gestures produced together with speech in a corpus of video-recorded “locality description” interviews in rural Laos. In a restricted set of the observed gestures (we did not consider gestures with special hand shapes, gestures with arc/tracing motion, or gestures directed at referents within physical reach), two basic formal types of pointing gesture are observed: B-points (large movement, full arm, eye gaze often aligned) and S-points (small movement, hand only, casual articulation). Taking the approach that speech and gesture are structurally integrated in composite utterances, we observe that these types of pointing gesture have distinct pragmatic functions at the utterance level. One type of gesture (usually “big” in form) carries primary, informationally foregrounded information (for saying “where” or “which one”). Infants perform this type of gesture long before they can talk. The second type of gesture (usually “small” in form) carries secondary, informationally backgrounded information which responds to a possible but uncertain lack of referential common ground. We propose that the packaging of the extra locational information into a casual gesture is a way of adding extra information to an utterance without it being on-record that the added information was necessary. This is motivated by the conflict between two general imperatives of communication in social interaction: a social-affiliational imperative not to provide more information than necessary (“Don’t over-tell”), and an informational imperative not to provide less information than necessary (“Don’t under-tell”).

Use of video modeling to increase generalization of social play by children with autism.

Abstract The use of video modeling to increase generalization of social play skills in children with autism is discussed. The possible reasons that have made this procedure so favorable among researchers and practitioners are explored. Two studies are described in which video modeling increased the generalization of social play in 6 children, and critical features of procedure are emphasized. Suggestions regarding the potential mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of this procedure are discussed relative to basic behavioral theory and research. Key Words: Video modeling, generalization, social play, autism, children. Introduction The development of social skills by children with autism is qualitatively and quantitatively different from that observed in other childhood disorders or in typically developing peers as early as the second year of life (e.g., Ruble, 2001; Wetherby, Watt, Morgan, & Shumway, 2007). It has been suggested that social impairment may be a primary deficit that results in the development of secondary deficits such as communicative disorders or self-stimulatory behaviors (e.g., Baker, 2000; Bellini, Akullian, & Hopf, 2007; Rogers, 2000). For example, in verbal children, both the frequency of language use, even in an echolalic form, as well as the development of novel vocabulary have been demonstrated to increase along with increases in social engagement (e.g., Krantz & McClannahan, 1993; Kuhl, Coffey-Corina, Padden, & Dawson, 2005; Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2007; Stahmer, 1995; Thorp, Stahmer, & Schreibman, 1995). Furthermore, inappropriate behaviors have been shown to decrease during periods of active social engagement (Lee & Odom, 1996; Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2006). When children with autism have major difficulties in engaging in social interactions they may also have fewer opportunities to initiate social play (e.g., Beyer & Gammeltof, 2000; Koegel, Koegel, Frea, & Fredeen, 2001; Pierce & Schreibman, 1994) or to learn language (Kaiser, Hester, & McDuffie, 2001). Thus, social and communication skills are often studied as an integrated unit since impairments in the entire social communication domain have been acknowledged as a significant part of the symptom-based genetic research in autistic spectrum disorders (Klin, Jones, Schultz, Volkmar, & Cohen, 2002). Indeed, several studies have demonstrated that engagement in social communicative interactions directly affects other behaviors such as stereotyped or self-injurious behaviors even when these behaviors are not significantly targeted by the teaching program (Green, Gilchrist, Burton, & Cox, 2000; Horner, Carr, Strain, Todd, & Reed, 2002; McGee, Morrier, & Daly, 1999; Rogers, 2000; Summers, Houlding, & Reitzel, 2004). Since social skills are related to the long-term adjustment of and prognosis for both typically and atypically developing children, any program for children with autism must address and promote these valuable skills (Charlop-Christy & Daneshvar, 2003; Hwang & Hughes, 2000). The following sections of this paper will introduce the role of video modeling in promoting social development; describe the reasons for an increasing interest in video modeling among practitioners and researchers; summarize two studies that have examined the ability of video modeling to promote generalization of social skills; and examine elements of video modeling within a behavior analytic framework. Use of Video Modeling to Enhance Social Skills Many studies have been conducted to promote the social skills of children with autism by focusing on increasing their social communicative engagement with others (e.g., adults; typical peers) during play situations. Procedures have included social stories (Kuoch & Mirenda, 2003; Smith, 2001), peer-mediated intervention (DiSalvo & Oswald, 2002; McGrath, Bosch, Sullivan, & Fuqua, 2003), pivotal response intervention (Koegel, Koegel, Shoshan, & McNerney, 1999), self-management package (Newman, Reineche, & Meinberg, 2000), script-fading procedure (Krantz & McClannahan, 1993; Sarokoff, Taylor, & Poulson, 2001), and tactile prompts (Shabani et al. …

"Do I Know What I Need to Do?" A Social Communication Intervention for Children With Complex Clinical Profiles

Speech-language pathologists frequently address social communication difficulties in children with diverse clinical profiles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a social communication intervention for a school-age child with a complex cognitive and behavioral profile secondary to diagnosis of a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. A case study is presented to describe the implementation of the intervention targeting mental state verb production and social cognitive skills. The intervention included group role play of social scripts and a checklist to elicit the participant's statements about others' perspectives and strategies for completing the social script. Treatment data monitored the participant's responses to the checklist questions. Probe sessions, consisting of theory of mind false belief tasks, were used to examine mental state verb use. Treatment data demonstrated that the participant stated more strategies in response to checklist questions. The participant did not produce any mental state verbs during baseline probes, but did produce mental state verbs during the treatment phase. The results support use of this intervention to change children's linguistic and social cognitive skills. Suggestions for extending this intervention to include a generalization plan targeting classroom social communication interactions are provided.

Facilitating Peer-Group Entry in Kindergartners With Impairments in Social Communication.

This series of case studies examined the efficacy of intervention designed to teach peer-group entry skills to kindergartners with social interaction and communication deficits. The participants were 3 kindergartners at the University of Washington Experimental Educational Unit (EEU) who were selected because of difficulty with peer-group entry and cooperative play as compared to other children in the classroom. The intervention program included direct treatment of the children by the primary researcher and teachers in the classroom. The intervention was modeled on research describing a sequential peer-entry hierarchy that incorporated the children moving from low-risk strategies to high-risk strategies. Specifically, the treatment focused on teaching the children to use props to facilitate the production of high-risk verbal statements. Results demonstrated increases in (a) children's use of props and verbal statements to enter peer groups, (b) cooperative play, and (c) time spent interacting with peers. Results also indicated that following treatment, the children's behaviors more closely resembled those of their comparison peers. Results are encouraging for suggesting strategies for working with kindergartners who exhibit social communication interaction problems. The data indicate that a combined speech-language pathologist/teacher intervention using modeling and prompting with visual stimuli may be successful in teaching children to use props and specific verbal statements as a means of entering peer groups and engaging in cooperative play.

Increasing Peer-Directed Social-Communication Skills of Children Enrolled in Head Start

The current study assessed the effects of an intervention to improve the social-communicative interactions of six children at-risk for delays in language and social skills enrolled in Head Start. A multiple-baseline design across three mixed-gender dyads was used to determine the effects of a three-component intervention on children's verbal interactions and play. During the baseline, intervention, and generalization phases, children's social-communicative behaviors were videotaped, coded, and summarized. When the plan-play-report intervention was introduced in each dyad, children's social-communicative behaviors increased. Increases occurred in descriptive statements, requests, and language complexity and diversity. During the intervention, children also engaged in more complex play behaviors. Children generalized changes in social communication, interaction, and play to untrained peers from different classrooms.

Improving the Social Communication Skills of At-Risk Preschool Children in a Play Context

This study was designed to examine the effects of a three-component intervention on the social-communicative interactions of six preschool children at risk for language delays and behavior problems. In a multiple baseline design across three dyads, children were taught to (a) plan their play, (b) use conversational social interaction strategies, and (c) self-evaluate their play interactions. The number of social-communicative behaviors by each child increased following introduction of the intervention condition, as did their use of descriptive and request utterances during play sessions. Increases in linguistic complexity and diversity and play complexity also were associated with the intervention. This intervention holds promise for improving social, linguistic, and play behaviors in preschoolers at risk for language delays and behavior problems.

Social-Communicative Interactions of Preschool Children with Developmental Delays in Integrated Settings

This exploratory study compared the social-communicative performance of six preschool children with developmental delays during free play in both mainstream and reverse integration program settings. It included an analysis of attention-getting devices as a strategy for optimizing the success of social-communicative interactions. Performance was similar across settings. Neither setting appeared to promote adequate rates of initiating and responding. The use of attention-getting devices by children and conversational partners increased the number of successful interactions and should be encouraged as an intervention strategy regardless of integration setting.