Social Initiations Research Articles

'Real Men Reawaken Their Fathers' Homesteads, the Educated Leave Them in Ruins': the Politics of Domestic Reproduction in Post-Apartheid Rural South Africa1

AbstractAn historical ethnography of generational conflicts in a rural community in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, this paper engages debates on the consequences of global neo-liberalism in local contexts. Through cash from migrant labor, rural household heads exercised power over domestic economics. Ideologically this power translated into the symbolic articulation of two institutions of social reproduction-the school and initiation rite such that the educated and potentially alienated subjects yielded by the former were resocialized through the latter into local subjects of the chief and sons of their fathers. With rising unemployment rates since the 1980s, however, the older men lost the material base for their monopoly over this symbolic structure. The generational conflicts that ensued reflected at once the attendant contradictions in social consciousness and consequent struggles to renegotiate the symbolic purchase of the relations between schooling and initiation.

Animal-Assisted Therapy Enhances Resident Social Interaction and Initiation in Long-Term Care Facilities

ABSTRACTSocial stimulation is a valuable aspect of therapeutic activities at long-term care facilities, designed to decrease social isolation, maintain or stimulate mental abilities, and increase awareness of the external environment. A study was undertaken at two such facilities to compare the effectiveness of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) with Non-Animal Therapy (NAT) at providing social stimulation, that is, at providing opportunities for patients to engage in social interaction and to initiate social behaviors. While studies have indicated that AAT can improve resident outlook or affect, few have directly studied the social behaviors that might lead to such improvements, or the role the animals themselves might play. We observed 33 patients, both alert and semi- to non-alert, during regular recreational therapy sessions. Most patients were women (29 vs. four men), and geriatric (in their 70's and 80's). Non-Animal Therapies included Arts and Crafts and Snack Bingo, while AAT involved animals from local animal shelters being brought by volunteers to group sessions. Social behaviors naturally divided into Brief Conversations, Long Conversations, and Touch. We determined frequencies and rates of the behaviors, who initiated the behaviors and whether the behaviors were directed at other people or at the animals.Overall, during AAT residents were involved in as much or more conversation with others, including the animals, as residents in Non-Animal Therapy, and were more likely to initiate and participate in longer conversations. The finding that different kinds of therapies seem to encourage different kinds of conversation might be an important consideration when investigating health benefits. The most dramatic differences between therapy types were found in rates of touch: touching the animals during AAT added significantly to resident engagement in, and initiation of, this behavior. Since touch is considered an important part of social stimulation and therapy, the enhancement of this social behavior by the animals is an important, and perhaps undervalued, effect.

Neonatal Complications: How Do They Impact on the Development of Self Regulation and Executive Processing Skills in Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) Children? † 1285

We previously reported outcome at 6, 12, 24, 40 and 54 months as part of an ongoing study of High Risk (HR) VLBW infants with chronic lung disease and/or Grade III or IV IVH (N=75), Low Risk (LR) VLBW infants with acute lung disease and/or Grade I or II IVH (N=118) and Full Term controls (FT) (N=114). The results of cognitive, neurologic and social function have shown HR have more impairment than LR and FT, LR have deficits in specific areas compared to FT and that LR persist in functioning in the low normal range. Premature children are at risk for social, behavioral and learning problems at school age and in adolescence. A potential precursor is problems in the development of self regulation or executive processing skills including organizing and regulating behaviors, ability to formulate goals and ability to take an active role in social and non-social situations. We evaluated our children to determine if there were differences in the three groups in acquisition of these types of skills. As part of their evaluation at 40 and 54 months, the children were evaluated with observational measures of self regulation and executive processing skills including the number of trials it took to obtain rewards in search tasks and the number of episodes spent in independent goal-directed toy play. Social initiating skills were evaluated by observational measures as the child interacted with the mother during daily activities and toy play. The results on the search task at 40 months showed HR scored significantly lower than FT but not LR children. In episodes of goal directed play, HR and LR children were significantly different (p<.001) from FT but were not different from each other. In social initiating, HR were significantly different (p<.05) from LR and FT. At 54 months the results on the search task showed that HR scored significantly different from LR and FT (p<.01) and LR and FT did not differ from each other. In episodes of goal directed play, HR and LR differed from FT. In initiating, there were no differences between groups. Between 40 and 54 months, there was an improvement in certain areas in the premature groups. The LR group improved in increased sophistication of goal directed toy play and the HR group improved in social initiations. Further research is needed to determine if improved social initiations with caregivers generalizes to better social interactions with peers and teachers at school age.

The effects of reinforcement rate on the spontaneous social initiations of socially withdrawn preschoolers.

Social skills priming was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 socially withdrawn preschoolers, 1 of whom had been diagnosed with autism. During priming sessions, the teacher prompted and reinforced social behaviors (e.g., smiling, verbal initiations). We varied the rate of reinforcement during priming sessions and measured the effects of this manipulation on the rate of spontaneous social initiations during the subsequent classroom activity. Spontaneous initiations were more frequent after high rates of reinforcement than after low rates of reinforcement.

The Effect of Reinforcement, Prompting and Social Initiation as Intervention Strategies on the Abnormal Social Relations of Autistic Children

Autistic children experience a deficit in verbal and non-verbal communication as well as their social development. They usually exhibit three broad symptoms, one of which is the failure to develop social relationships (Rutter,1978; Wood & Lazzari, 1997). Several studies have been conducted on intervention strategies that enhance the social repertoire of autistic children (Strain, 1983; Short, 1984; Strain, 1977). So far reinforcement, prompting and social initiations have proven to be effective intervention strategies especially when they have been administered by trained peers. However, to obtain generalization of the behaviour challenge the interventions have to be implemented across time and settings.

Factor analysis of the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory: Structure and validity

Principal components (PC) factor analysis of the Mayo Portland Adaptability Inventory (MPAI) was conducted using a sample of outpatients (n=189) with acquired brain injury (ABI) to evaluate whether outcome after ABI is multifactorial or unifactorial in nature. An eight factor model was derived which explained 64.4% of the total variance. The eight factors were interpreted as representing Activities of Daily Living, Social Initiation, Cognition, Impaired Self awareness Distress, Social Skills Support, Independence, Visuoperceptual, and Psychiatric, respectively. Validation of the Cognition factor was supported when factor scores were correlated with various neuropsychological measures. In addition, 117 patient self rating total scores were used to evaluate the Impaired Self awareness Distress factor. An inverse relationship was observed, supporting this factor's ability to capture the two dimensional phenomena of diminished self awareness or enhanced emotional distress. A new subscale structure is suggested, that may allow greater clinical utility in understanding how ABI manifests in patients, and may provide clinicians with a better structure for implementing treatment strategies to address specific areas of impairment and disability for specific patients. Additionally, more precise measurement of treatment outcomes may be afforded by this reorganization.

Factor analysis of the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory: Structure and validity

Principal components (PC) factor analysis of the Mayo Portland Adaptability Inventory (MPAI) was conducted using a sample of outpatients (n=189) with acquired brain injury (ABI) to evaluate whether outcome after ABI is multifactorial or unifactorial in nature. An eight factor model was derived which explained 64.4% of the total variance. The eight factors were interpreted as representing Activities of Daily Living, Social Initiation, Cognition, Impaired Self awareness Distress, Social Skills Support, Independence, Visuoperceptual, and Psychiatric, respectively. Validation of the Cognition factor was supported when factor scores were correlated with various neuropsychological measures. In addition, 117 patient self rating total scores were used to evaluate the Impaired Self awareness Distress factor. An inverse relationship was observed, supporting this factor's ability to capture the two dimensional phenomena of diminished self awareness or enhanced emotional distress. A new subscale structure is suggested, that may allow greater clinical utility in understanding how ABI manifests in patients, and may provide clinicians with a better structure for implementing treatment strategies to address specific areas of impairment and disability for specific patients. Additionally, more precise measurement of treatment outcomes may be afforded by this reorganization.

Social support for HIV-infected mothers: Relation to HIV care seeking

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to identify sources of social support for 92 HIV-seropositive mothers and to examine the relationship between social support and initiation of health care after a positive test for HIV antibody. Main outcome measures were self-reported source and amount of social support and length of time between the first positive HIV antibody test and the first visit for HIV care. Results indicated that HIV-infected mothers frequently delay seeking medical care and report attenuated social support networks. A limited program of HIV counseling and testing during pregnancy is unlikely to ensure that they will enter the healthcare system.

Teaching preschool age autistic children to make spontaneous initiations to peers using priming.

Children with autism rarely initiate social interactions with their peers. Currently available interventions have not increased autistic children' spontaneous initiations in natural settings without extensive teacher involvement. A "priming" strategy consisting of a low demand, high reinforcement session prior to the regular school activity was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 preschool age autistic boys to typically developing peers in a regular preschool classroom. Peers were also trained to independently respond to initiations. Implications for developing practical ways to improve autistic children's social functioning in regular school settings are discussed.

Sharing Attention to Toys: Adolescent Mother–Toddler versus Adult Mother–Toddler Dyads

This study examined whether there were differences in the joint attention behaviours of adolescent mothers and toddlers and adult mothers and toddlers. The timing of mothers' attention-directing behaviours (i.e. maintaining, introducing and redirecting) as well as the specific behaviours (i.e. showing, offering and demon-strating toy) they used to direct their toddlers' attention to toys were observed. The observers also coded the specific joint attention behaviours that the toddlers used. The findings showed that the adolescent mothers redirected their toddlers' attention away from a toy they were interested in to a different toy more often and used fewer introducing behaviours than the adult mothers. Toddler age was also inversely related to mothers' redirecting behaviour. The results also indicated that the adolescent mothers demonstrated toys and interfered with their toddlers' ongoing play behaviour more frequently than the adult mothers. Toddler age was also inversely related to the frequency with which both groups of mothers demonstrated toys and positively related to the frequency with which mothers showed toys. The toddlers born to the adolescent mothers showed fewer social initiations and a higher frequency of non-verbal responses than the toddlers born to the adult mothers. Toddler age was negatively related to the frequency of non-verbal responses.

The Relationship between Stereotypic Behavior and Peer Social Interaction for Children with Severe Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the collateral relationship between engagement in social interaction with peers and the occurrence of stereotypic behavior for two children with severe disabilities. Peers without disabilities were taught to make social initiations to two children with autism and other severe disabilities who engaged in high rates of stereotypic behavior. When the peers made social initiations and the children with disabilities increased their engagement in social interaction, collateral decreases occurred in their stereotypic behavior. Within an ABAB design, the functional relationship between these variables was demonstrated. Implications of these findings for designing interventions for promoting social integration and their possible effects on stereotypic behavior are noted.

Social Behaviors of Children with Visual Impairments Enrolled in Preschool Programs

This study investigated the social behaviors of children with visual impairments enrolled in a variety of preschool programs. Using the Behaviour Observation Record, the researchers made comparisons between the social interactions of 9 children with visual impairments and a matched comparison group of 9 children with full sight. Observational data indicated that the children with visual impairments were capable of interacting with others. Differences were noted, however, in the frequency of social initiations and the targets of these initiations made by the children with visual impairments. These observations are interpreted in support of the integration of preschool children with visual impairments into general education programs.

Promoting Prosocial Behaviours Among Preschool Children With and Without Disabilities

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program on promoting prosocial behaviours among preschool children with and without disabilities. The intervention was carried out with three integrated groups of children, each comprised of one child with a disability and two peers without disabilities, created from three mainstreamed preschool classrooms. The intervention was successful in promoting increases in positive social interactions among the children with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. For two of the three groups the children with disabilities engaged in an equal or greater percentage of positive social initiations than their peers without disabilities. Increases in positive social responses to positive social initiations were similar for children with and without disabilities. Intervention phase behavioural changes generalised to both immediate group conditions, but did not generalise to deferred classroom conditions. Variabili...

Frontal Activation Asymmetry and Social Competence at Four Years of Age

The pattern of frontal activation as measured by the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) may be a marker for individual differences in infant and adult disposition to respond with either positive or negative affect. We studied 48 4-year-old children who were first observed in same-sex quartets during free-play sessions, while making speeches, and during a ticket-sorting task. Social and interactive behaviors were coded from these sessions. Each child was subsequently seen 2 weeks later when EEG was recorded while the child attended to a visual stimulus. The pattern of EEG activation computed from the session was significantly related to the child's behavior in the quartet session. Children who displayed social competence (high degree of social initiations and positive affect) exhibited greater relative left frontal activation, while children who displayed social withdrawal (isolated, onlooking, and unoccupied behavior) during the play session exhibited greater relative right frontal activation. Differences among children in frontal asymmetry were a function of power in the left frontal region. These EEG/behavior findings suggest that resting frontal asymmetry may be a marker for certain temperamental dispositions.

The social problem-solving skills of anxious-withdrawn children

AbstractThe purpose of this investigation was to contrast the social competencies of groups of extremely withdrawn and average children. Fifty-five kindergarten, Grade 2 and Grade 4 children were observed during dyadic play in a laboratory setting. Results indicated that (a)withdrawnchildren displayed fewer social problem-solving initiations, produced fewer socially assertive strategies, and were less successful in their attempts, compared to their more sociable age-mates; (b)averagechildren experienced fewer failures in meeting their social goals with increasing age but withdrawn children did not; (c) the discrepancy in failure rates for “high cost” social goals between the two target groups increased with increasing age; and (d) withdrawn children were less likely than average children to reinitiate a social problem-solving attempt subsequent to failure.

Effects of high-probability requests on the social interactions of young children with severe disabilities.

High-probability requests were used to increase social interactions in 3 young boys with severe disabilities who had been identified as severely socially withdrawn. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of high-probability request intervention on (a) social initiations, (b) social responses, (c) continued interactions, and (d) performance of high- and low-probability requests. The students were observed in a second setting to examine generalization effects across peers who did not participate in the training sequence and settings. The results demonstrated that the high-probability requests increased the students' responsiveness to low-probability requests to initiate social behavior. Increases were also found in (a) unprompted initiations and extended interactions to the training peers, (b) unprompted initiations and extended interactions to peers who were not involved in the training procedure, and (c) generalized unprompted initiations and interactions in a second nontraining setting. The students maintained increased levels of initiations and interactions after all prompts were removed from both the training and nontraining settings.

Increasing and Maintaining Withdrawn Preschoolers' Peer Interactions: Effects of Double Prompting and Booster Session Procedures

The combined effects of double-prompting and booster session procedures on the social behavior of four socially withdrawn preschool children were investigated. A multiple baseline design across subjects was employed to evaluate these procedures. Double-prompting and contingent social praise involved having the classroom teacher prompt and praise the initiations and responses of the subjects and their peers to one another. The behaviors that were prompted — play organizers, shares, and assists — had previously been shown to be effective in setting the occasion for a positive response from peers. When maintenance of increased target initiations was not forthcoming, booster sessions were used to maintain subject initiations during follow-up. The results indicated that (a) the intervention procedures increased the subjects' play organizer, share, and assist initiations, (b) subjects' and peers' responses to one another's initiations did not have to be prompted, (c) there were collateral increases in nontargeted social initiations of the subjects, (d) there were smaller increases in the initiations of peers, (e) booster sessions functioned to increase initiations temporarily and (f) subjects' extended interactions with peers increased during intervention and remained high regardless of whether or not booster sessions were applied during follow-up.

The Effects of Directed Art Activities on the Behavior of Young Children with Disabilities: A Multi-Element Baseline Analysis

AbstractThe effects of directed art activities on the behavior of two preschool children and one kindergarten child with disabilities in a rural classroom were examined. A multi-element baseline design across participants was used to compare directed art activities with typical preschool art activities. The behaviors measured were aggression, eye contact, and social initiation. Each art activity directed by the teacher focused on an affective concept such as anger or happiness. The control condition used the same art materials as the directed art activity, and the children chose how they would use the materials. The results indicated that the directed art activity had a larger effect than the control condition on the social behavior of two children, while the control condition generated little effect. Neither art activity had a measurable effect on the targeted behavior of the third child. Implications for use by preschool and other teachers were suggested.

Programming participation in family activities for children with autism: parents' use of photographic activity schedules.

The parents of 3 boys with autism were taught to help their children follow photographic activity schedules depicting a variety of home-living tasks. A multiple baseline across participants showed that the home-based intervention produced increases in children's engagement and social initiations and decreases in disruptive behavior, which were maintained for as long as 10 months.

Using Peers to Promote the Social Interaction of Withdrawn Children in a Natural Preschool Setting

Abstract The peer social initiation approach was used to increase the social interaction of three withdrawn children with special needs with their nondisabled age-mates in the regular preschool environment. The treatment sessions were designed to be as natural as possible with respect to normal routines of the day in preschool. The results revealed a substantial increase in positive social interaction between the children during the treatment sessions. The effect was maintained during the fading phase and the follow-up phase of one week. The results are discussed in terms of achieving generalization of the effects.