Social Communication Skills In Children Research Articles

Exploring the Acquisition of Social Communication Skills in Children with Autism: Preliminary Findings from Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Parent Training, and Video Modeling.

Social communication skills, especially eye contact and joint attention, are frequently impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and predict functional outcomes. Applied behavior analysis is one of the most common evidence-based treatments for ASD, but it is not accessible to most families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as it is an expensive and intensive treatment and needs to be delivered by highly specialized professionals. Parental training has emerged as an effective alternative. This is an exploratory study to assess a parental intervention group via video modeling to acquire eye contact and joint attention. Four graded measures of eye contact and joint attention (full physical prompt, partial physical prompt, gestural prompt, and independent) were assessed in 34 children with ASD and intellectual disability (ID). There was a progressive reduction in the level of prompting required over time to acquire eye contact and joint attention, as well as a positive correlation between the time of exposure to the intervention and the acquisition of abilities. This kind of parent training using video modeling to teach eye contact and joint attention skills to children with ASD and ID is a low-cost intervention that can be applied in low-resource settings.

СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ ПРЕДПОСЫЛОК СОЦИАЛЬНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ ПОДРОСТКОВ С МЕНТАЛЬНЫМИ НАРУШЕНИЯМИ

Introduction. Currently, the issues of studying and developing communicative skills in children with disabilities are among the priority areas of modern correctional pedagogy and rehabilitation. The relevance of this issue is due to the need to expand the possibilities of their socialization, which is closely related to the formation of a system of life competencies based on knowledge of the basic patterns of social interaction, the ability to effectively use communication skills with other people in various situations of daily activity. The greatest risks of social and communicative maladjustment are observed among children with intellectual disabilities. The article presents the materials of theoretical analysis and the results of a comparative study of the social and communicative sphere of adolescents with different levels of intellectual underdevelopment. Materials and methods. The experiment involved 118 adolescents with varying degrees of intellectual development disorders (42 children with delay in mental development, 49 adolescents with mild delay in mental development and 27 children with moderate delay in mental development). Empirical data were obtained on the basis of the scientific and Practical Center for Mental Health of Children and Adolescents named after G. E. Sukhareva and the Center for Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation of the Moscow Department of Health. In the process of research and preparation of the article, methods of analyzing literary sources, experimental methods of studying the social and communicative sphere, methods of statistical processing of research results were used. The results. The specific difficulties of communicative behavior that arise in adolescents with ASD, mild and moderate severity of intellectual disabilities have been identified. The experimental data obtained can be taken into account to determine the content of speech therapy work aimed at developing social communication skills in children with varying degrees of intellectual underdevelopment. Conclusion. The problem requires further study, development and implementation of special differentiated technologies for the formation of competencies in the social and communicative sphere of adolescents with intellectual disabilities.

Effect of Bullying and Aggression on Social Communication of Children who Stutter

Background: Bullying and aggression in school settings have a profound impact on children, especially those with communication challenges like stuttering. Previous research has indicated that children who stutter may face increased risks of bullying, leading to adverse social, psychological, and academic outcomes. Objective: The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between bullying, aggression, and social communication skills in children who stutter, and to understand the prevalence and impact of bullying on this particular group. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 385 stuttering adolescents aged 10-18 years, alongside their parents, at Eman Clinic, Children's Hospital, and GHQ Hospital in Faisalabad. The study utilized the Olweus Bullying Victim Questionnaire (OBVQ) and the Bus Perry Aggression Questionnaire to assess bullying and aggression. The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) was employed to evaluate social communication skills. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25, focusing on descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Results: The age distribution of respondents showed 38.2% (150) in the 10-12 age group, 34.6% (136) in the 13-15 age group, and 25.2% (99) in the 16-18 age group. Regarding gender, 59.0% (232) were female and 39.0% (153) were male. The correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between bullying and aggression (r = .435, p < .000), while the relationships between bullying and SCQ (r = -.046, p = .371), and aggression and SCQ (r = .051, p = .323) were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The study highlights a significant correlation between bullying and aggression in stuttering adolescents, suggesting that as bullying increases, so does aggression. However, the impact of bullying and aggression on social communication skills was less clear, indicating a need for further research. These findings underscore the necessity of developing supportive measures in educational and healthcare settings for stuttering children to combat bullying and its adverse effects.

E-LEARNING APPLICATION FOR AUTISM CHILDREN

‘Auticore’ is a e-learning mobile application that will particularly help all the autism children to learn communication skills and to become a productive child from the childhood. All the features and interfaces are designed for children with autism spectrum disorder and Important features which may improve the quality of their learning abilities. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global plan to reduce inequality both inside and between countries. Autism is one of the challenging factors nowadays. Autism spectrum disorder, the name adopted in 2013, is a developmental disorder characterized by persistent problems in social communication and interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. The following project is specified the implementation process of E-learning application for students with autism spectrum disorder. The main goal of the project is to develop a mobile application to create a better and smartest way to learn social communication skills for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Aided Enhanced milieu teaching to develop symbolic and social communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

Children who lack functional spoken language are candidates for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Aided AAC and naturalistic interventions offer the potential to extend the communication functions demonstrated by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are nonspeaking. Related intervention research, however, has been limited, in that interventions have generally targeted a limited range of communication functions taught in highly structured, decontextualized environments. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of an intervention that combined aided AAC with a naturalistic intervention – enhanced milieu teaching (AEMT) - to increase symbolic communication in children with autism spectrum disorder. Three children with autism spectrum disorder participated in a multiple probe design, in which a range of communication functions were targeted using the AEMT. Results showed increases in the use of symbolic communication from baseline to intervention phases, which were found to be statistically significant for two of the three children (phi 0.7–0.81; p < .001). Intervention outcomes were generalized to a communication partner not involved in the intervention and maintained over time for all children. The study provides preliminary evidence that communication functions beyond object requests could be taught using a systematic, multi-element approach implemented across activities.

Is Telehealth a Feasible Mode of Intervention Delivery to Improve Social Communication Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder? Results From a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, deficits in emotional regulation, higher rates of repetitive behaviors, and poor motor planning and body coordination. Our past studies have demonstrated that engaging in rhythmic movement interventions can advance gross motor skills while promoting spontaneous verbalization, joint attention, and improved behavioral regulation in children with ASD. Objective This study compares the effects of 2 whole-body movement interventions to a standard-of-care intervention on social communication skills in children with ASD. Due to the pandemic, the study transitioned from face-to-face intervention (F2F) to a telehealth (TH) format. This poster will compare the efficacy of F2F and TH intervention delivery modes in promoting social communication skills. Methods A total of 45 children with ASD between 5 and 14 years old participated in a 10-week study. Children were randomly assigned to receive 8 weeks (2 sessions/week, 60-75 minutes/session) of creative movement (play), general movement (move), or seated play (create) training. Training sessions involved interactions between the child, an expert trainer, an adult model, and caregivers. Outcome measures include training-specific measures of the percent duration of socially directed and self-directed verbalization (with respect to the total verbalization time) measured during early and late training sessions as well as the type of verbalization (spontaneously initiated versus in response to partner bidding or prompting). We will also compare the magnitude of training-related change in verbalization in children seen F2F versus via TH. Results In all groups, children engaged in greater social versus self-directed verbalization during early and late training sessions. The move group showed an increase in social verbalization with respect to the total session duration from early to late sessions (mean early 11.4, SE 1.5; mean late 15.6, SE 2.0; P=.02). These improvements were in children seen F2F (67% of children) and via TH (80% of children). Within social verbalization, children in all groups verbalized more toward the researchers compared to family members during training sessions. Specifically, children in the play group demonstrated an increase in percent duration of social verbalization toward the researchers (trainer and model) from early to late session (mean early 61.9, SE 6.8; mean late 70, SE 6.8; P=.03). Children seen via TH started at lower baseline levels of social verbalization, compared to their F2F counterparts, but showed a significant increase from early to late sessions (TH: 71% and F2F: 62.5% of children improved). In terms of verbalization type, the move and create groups engaged in greater responsive verbalization compared to the play group across early and late sessions. The create group did not show any increase in social verbalization with training irrespective of intervention delivery mode. Conclusions Our preliminary data suggest that the whole-body movement interventions can be used to foster social verbalization in children with ASD. The study adds to the prepandemic evidence on the feasibility of implementation and utility of TH-based intervention delivery in the care of children with ASD. Clinicians may choose TH-based intervention delivery to build a rapport with children to address the core impairments in ASD, provided that caregivers are available during TH sessions to ensure child engagement and compliance. Conflicts of Interest None declared. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04258254; https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT04258254

Communication Breakdowns and Repairs of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with Fathers and Mothers

ABSTRACT The ability to repair breakdowns in communication is a critical pragmatic language skill. To date however, studies of repairs have been conducted with mothers or examiners. Little is known about repairs children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use in interactions with fathers. Expanding our understanding of communication repairs used with fathers, and how these compare with mothers, may have clinical implications for improving social communication skills for children with ASD. This descriptive study investigated communication breakdowns and repairs of 16 children with ASD and fathers and mothers, during unscripted 15-min parent-child play sessions. Analysis of breakdowns and repairs was compared across parent gender. Findings provide early evidence of differences in breakdowns experienced and communication repairs used by children with ASD in interactions with their mothers and fathers. In parent-child free-play interactions, children with ASD had significantly fewer initiations, more breakdowns, and lower rates of repairs, with fathers than with mothers. Results suggest that including fathers in parent coaching aimed at increasing initiations, reducing breakdowns, and enhancing repair strategies may be a valuable component of parent-implemented social communication interventions for children with ASD.

Effects of peer network intervention through peer-led play on Basic Social Communication Skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Inclusive Classroom

Effects of peer network intervention through peer-led play on Basic Social Communication Skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Inclusive Classroom

Effectiveness of Online-Delivered Project ImPACT for Children With ASD and Their Parents: A Pilot Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ObjectiveDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face intervention services for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were limited. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an 8-week, online-delivered Project ImPACT program for children with ASD and their parents in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA pilot non-randomized study with a waitlist control group was conducted in 68 children with ASD and their parents in the Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics between April 15, 2020 and March 19, 2021. Participants were allocated to either the intervention (IG) or the waitlist group (WLG) according to their order of recruitment. Parents in the IG immediately received 8 weeks of the online-delivered Project ImPACT program, and the WLG received the same program with a delay when the IG had completed all sessions. Participants in both groups received treatment as usual during the research period.ResultsThe online-delivered Project ImPACT program significantly improved the parent-reported social communication skills of children with ASD. Furthermore, parent's involvement in the training program produced a collateral reduction in parenting stress and an increase in perceived competence in the parental role. Parents rated the program acceptable in terms of curriculum schedule, session content, homework assignments, and therapist feedback.ConclusionsThe 8-week, online-delivered Project ImPACT program is a feasible and effective social skill training program for families of children with ASD in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the methodological limitations, randomized controlled studies with larger sample sizes are suggested to provide more solid evidence.

Pivotal Response Treatment with and without robot-assistance for children with autism: a randomized controlled trial

Pivotal response treatment (PRT) is a promising intervention focused on improving social communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since robots potentially appeal to children with ASD and may contribute to their motivation for social interaction, this exploratory randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted comparing PRT (PRT and robot-assisted PRT) with treatment-as-usual (TAU). Seventy-three children (PRT: n = 25; PRT + robot: n = 25; TAU: n = 23) with ASD, aged 3–8 years were assessed at baseline, after 10 and 20 weeks of intervention, and at 3-month follow-up. There were no significant group differences on parent- and teacher-rated general social-communicative skills and blindly rated global functioning directly after treatment. However, at follow-up largest gains were observed in robot-assisted PRT compared to other groups. These results suggest that robot-assistance may contribute to intervention efficacy for children with ASD when using game scenarios for robot-child interaction during multiple sessions combined with motivational components of PRT. This trial is registered at https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/4487; NL4487/NTR4712 (2014-08-01).

The Effects of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on Social Communication Skills for Children with Learning Disabilities

The Effects of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on Social Communication Skills for Children with Learning Disabilities

Modelling Social&amp;Communicative Skills in Children with Special Educational Needs

The paper covers the issues of theoretical frameworks that are being developing around the process of modelling social communication skills in children with special educational needs during language learning process using interactive teaching techniques.

Proposal of a questionnaire to investigate social communication skills of children with typical development and communication disorders

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify the possibility of administering a simple questionnaire to family members who communicate with their children to identify communication functional characteristics of children with different manifestations of language development. Methods: 95 parents/guardians were individually interviewed. Their children were afterwards diagnosed with language disorder (LD), speech production disorder (SPD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and typical development (TD). The interviews were conducted with the Communicative Skills Questionnaire to characterize the pragmatic performance. The Student’s t-test and the principal component analysis were used in statistical analysis, considering significant p-values &lt; 0.05. Results: the statistical analyses reveal that the questionnaire distinguished the groups of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and language disorder from the groups of children with speech production disorders and typical development. Conclusion: the questionnaire proved to be capable of distinguishing and characterizing, from the pragmatic standpoint, the children with different manifestations of communication development, revealing the impaired pragmatic skills of children with autism spectrum disorders and language disorders.

Can Social Communication Skills for Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder Rehearsed Inside the Video Game Environment of Minecraft Generalize to the Real World?

In this paper, we outline opportunities within the video game environment for building skills applicable to real-world issues faced by some children. The game Minecraft is extremely popular and of particular interest to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Although the game has been used by support communities to facilitate the social interaction of children and peer support for their parents, little has been done to examine how social skills developed within the game environment generalize to the real world. Social Craft aims to establish a framework in which key social communication skills would be rehearsed in-game with a view to facilitating their replication in a similarly contained real-world environment. Central to this approach is an understanding of the basic principles of behavior and the engagement of a sound methodology for the collection of data inside and outside the respective environments.

Pengaruh Pola Asuh Dan Pola Bermain Terhadap Kemampuan Komunikasi Sosial Pada Anak Autism Di Surakarta

Background: Family is the most important role in a child's life, a place where he learns and expresses himself as a social creature, because the family provides the basis for the formation of personality, character, morals, socio-cultural and religious development as the first and foremost education place for children. The character development, morals and social development is very much influenced by parenting style and the playing pattern of child. Objective,to find out whether there is an influence of parenting style and playing patterns towards the ability of Social Communication in Children with Autism in the City of Surakarta. Methods: This type of research is a quantitative study with an observational analytic design through a cross sectional approach. This research will be conducted in the residency of Surakarta, in this study there is no intervention or treatment of respondents, and only observed once and do not follow up. Instrument, The instrument used to measure parenting style and playing patterns as well as children's social communication skills is a questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of three parts: the parenting style questionnaire aims to find out the form of parenting for children with autism. The play pattern questionnaire aims to find out the shape of the game patterns given to children with autism, and the social communication skills questionnaire aims to find out the social communication skills of children with autism. Results: Correlation statistical test using Spearmen`s rho analysis on parenting style variables with children's social communication skills obtained p value (sig.) 0.006, which means the value of p value 0.006 &lt;0.05 means that there is a relationship between the form of parenting style h with communication skills social children, with a positive correlation with weak strength (r count 0.393); while variable on play patterns with social communication skills obtained p value 0.011 &lt;0.05 means that there is a relationship between the form of play patterns with children's social communication skills, with a positive correlation direction and moderate strength (r count 0.363). Conclusion: Multivariate test results with multiple logistic regression showed that the R Square value of 0.057, which means that the parenting style variable and playing patterns can increase social communication skills of children with autism by 0.5% and the rest are explained in other factors outside the research model.

The Effects of Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching Implemented in Classrooms for Preschoolers With or at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Much research exists supporting the efficacy of naturalistic behavioral interventions on increasing social communication skills for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, these evidence-based interventions are not consistently utilized in preschool classrooms. Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching was used to teach early intentional communication (i.e., purposeful and coordinated use of vocalizations, gestures, and eye contact) to three preschool students with or at risk for ASD. The present study extends prior research demonstrating the effects of PMT in increasing intentional communication through implementation in a preschool special education classroom, measurement of collateral gains related to PMT targets, and measurement of maintenance and generalization of gains. Results indicate students increased their rates of intentional communication upon introduction of PMT. These gains maintained over time for two students. Present study results have implications for future research and practice regarding the efficacy and feasibility of implementing PMT in preschool classrooms.

Peer-Mediated Pivotal Response Treatment at School for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of peer training in pivotal response treatment (PRT) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their first year of school. Four 6-year-old boys with ASD and eight typically developing (TD) children (aged 4-6 years) participated in the study. A non-concurrent multiple-probe (across participants) baseline design was used. Outcomes were assessed before, immediately after, and 6 to 9 weeks following an eight-session training period. Overall, rates of peer engagement increased following training for three of the four children with ASD and rates of social initiation increased following training for two of the four children with ASD; these gains were maintained at follow-up. TD peers’ fidelity in implementing PRT techniques also improved. The present study suggests that relatively brief peer training in PRT can produce immediate and short-term sustained gains in peer-related social communication skills of children with ASD at school.

Children’s social communication skills and electronic screen exposure, perinatal, and other risk factors

To explore if exposure to electronic screen media (ESM) can increase the risk of poor social communication skills in children. Using the stratified, random cluster sampling method, 81,282 children aged 3–12 years from seven districts in Shanghai were investigated in 2014. The children’s social communication skills were measured by the social communication questionnaire (SCQ). More television viewing time every day was positively associated with the positive SCQ group (p ≤ 0.001). There was a dose–effect relationship between television screen time and its associated odds ratios (ORs). However, weekly time spent online or playing games for 3 h or less was negatively associated with the positive SCQ group (p < 0.05) by a multivariable logistic regression model. Other child and family characteristics were also found to impact SCQ performance. Significant associations of child and family characteristics with poor SCQ status were revealed in the Chinese children, which may be crucial for early intervention. To assess effects on children’s social development, screen time and multiple patterns of screen use should be considered for future guidelines and policies.

Father communication coaching for children with autism spectrum disorder: A single-subject study

Background and aims Parent-mediated interventions have been shown to be effective for improving communication skills for children with autism spectrum disorder when implemented by mothers. Little is known about the efficacy of autism spectrum disorder communication interventions implemented by fathers. This study investigated the effects of a 12-week coaching program on a father’s use of responsive strategies. Targeted responsive strategies included follow-in comments, follow-in directives, responsive physical play, and responsive object play. Collateral measures of changes to child communication skills and parental stress levels were also investigated. Methods A single subject, multiple baselines across behaviors experiment was conducted with one dyad (i.e. father and child with autism spectrum disorder). Results Results showed that the participating father was able to quickly learn to use three of the four targeted responsive strategies (i.e. follow-in comments, follow-in directives, responsive physical play). Child’s use of single words increased over baseline level and beginning use of multi-word utterances was documented. Pre–post intervention changes in ratings of stress for the participating father and mother were noted across child and parent domains. Conclusions and implications Findings of this pilot study may have important implications for developing much-needed parent coaching programs to enhance fathers’ use of responsive strategies and increase social communication skills for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Video Modeling Using Classroom Peers as Models to Increase Social Communication Skills in Children with ASD in an Integrated Preschool

Video Modeling Using Classroom Peers as Models to Increase Social Communication Skills in Children with ASD in an Integrated Preschool