Use Of Response Strategies Research Articles

Teachers' use of augmented input and responsive strategies in schools for students with intellectual disability: A multiple case study of a communication partner intervention.

Teachers serve as critical communication partners for students with intellectual disability (ID) who face communication difficulties. However, teachers may lack sufficient training in using communication partner strategies and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in the classroom. This study aimed to explore teacher application of a communication partner intervention (AKKtiv ComPal) in schools for students with ID. Video observations were conducted at four schools during a teacher-led group activity at pre- and postintervention, with follow-up 7 months later, focusing on communication partner strategies and AAC use applied as a universal approach in the classroom. Differences and similarities in intervention application and contextual factors that may influence teacher application were investigated using a multiple case study approach, in which the four teachers and their contexts served as the four examined cases. All cases increased the access to communication boards in the classroom and used more augmented input and responsive strategies following intervention. Follow-up measures revealed variability in augmented input and sustained or more use of responsive strategies. Despite increased strategy use, access to communication boards remained inconsistent, and augmented input was used with variability across observation minutes. Influencing factors to teacher application seemed to be classroom setups (such as having a table), previous AAC skills, student characteristics, and postintervention efforts such as repeating the intervention or participating in follow-up sessions. This study demonstrates that classroom teachers for students with ID can use augmented input and responsive strategies as a universal design approach in the classroom following the AKKtiv ComPal intervention. However, teachers may utilize the strategies somewhat differently, partly influenced by their contextual factors. The findings suggest that while teachers for students with ID can successfully use communication partner strategies in the classroom, their use of augmented input should be nurtured over time to ensure sustained use and possibly improve consistency. Additionally, adapting to the physical environment of the classroom is crucial to optimize the application of these strategies.

A trained communication partner's use of responsive strategies in aided communication with three adults with Rett syndrome: A case report.

PurposeTo explore and describe a trained communication partner’s use of responsive strategies in dyadic interaction with adults with Rett syndrome.IntroductionResponsive partner strategies facilitate social, communicative, and linguistic development. The common feature is that the communication partner responds contingently to the other’s focus of attention and interprets their acts as communicative. Research on responsive partner strategies that involves individuals with significant communication and motor disabilities remains sparse. The same applies to if, and how, the use of communication aids impacts on the partner’s use of responsive strategies.Materials and methodsA therapist, trained in responsive partner strategies and aided communication interacted during 14 sessions with each of three participants. The participants were adults with Rett syndrome. A gaze-controlled device and responsive strategies were used during all sessions. The Responsive Augmentative and Alternative Communication Style scale (RAACS) was used to assess the partner’s responsiveness. RAACS consists of 11 items including ratings of to what extent the partner is being attentive to, confirms, and expands the individual’s communication. During eight of the 14 sessions, aided AAC Modelling was also used, i.e., the communication partner pointed at symbols on the gaze-controlled device while interacting. In addition to RAACS, each time the communication partner confirmed or expanded on communication when (a) the participants used the gaze-controlled device and (b) the participants did not use the gaze-controlled device was counted. Descriptive statistics were used to present the results. Non-parametric tests were used to compare means between the two conditions and between participants.ResultsInter-rater agreement for the different RAACS items ranged from 0.73 to 0.96 and was thus found to be fair to excellent. The communication partner’s use of responsive strategies varied when communicating with different participants and the scores were higher when aided AAC modeling was used. The communication partner’s number of responses and use of responsive strategies were higher when the participants communicated through a gaze-controlled device.ConclusionThe communication partner’s use of responsive and scaffolding strategies is not a fixed construct but varies in interactions with different non-speaking persons. The same is true whether the non-speaking person uses a gaze-controlled device with digitized speech or not.

National response strategies and marketing innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, different nations have adopted a variety of response strategies to fight and contain the new coronavirus. Such national response strategies can be classified into three categories based on their underlying philosophy: strict control with unlimited resources, relentless contribution with limited resources, and rough rationality with limited resources. We discuss the philosophies, characteristics, and performances of the three response strategies and when they should be adopted. We also examine what marketing innovation strategies enterprises should adopt to survive and grow their businesses in both the short and long term. This study provides important strategic implications for national policymakers and enterprises on the use of response strategies as well as marketing innovation tactics and strategies to be used both during and after the pandemic.

4069 Examining the Effects of A Hybrid Communication Coaching Intervention on Fathers’ Responsive Strategy Use with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: This investigation aimed to mitigate barriers to father involvement in communication intervention for children with ASD and contribute to clinical practice by examining the effects of a hybrid parent coaching intervention for fathers of children with ASD that is tailored to fit both father’s interaction and communication styles as well as individual child characteristics. The Hybrid Father Communication Coaching (HFCC) combined online parent coaching lessons with in-person father-child aquatics sessions in order to increase father’s use of responsive verbal and play strategies. Distal effects on child communication were also investigated. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: A single subject, multiple baselines across strategies experiment was conducted with one dyad (i.e., father, child with ASD). In the present study, a hybrid father coaching model was used. Parent communication coaching sessions were delivered online, and weekly, father-child aquatics sessions were conducted in person, to provide opportunities for the father to use three targeted responsive strategies (i.e., follow-in comments, follow-in directives, responsive object play) during father-child physical activity. Collateral measures of child communication skills were also investigated. Single subject designs are particularly suitable for autism interventions, as they allow for experimental control with participants who are from heterogeneous populations (McReynolds and Kearn, 1983). The child participant was 5 years, 6 months at the start of intervention and had previously received a community diagnosis of ASD. Throughout the duration of the study, the child attended full-time kindergarten and received in-school speech-language therapy, as a well as 18-20 hours per week of Applied Behavioral Analysis intervention, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language therapy after school. The participating father was a biological parent who resided with the child continuously since birth. The participating father had no other formal parent training in communication intervention before participating. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The hybrid father communication coaching program (HFCC) yielded positive results for both father and child participant. The father quickly achieved a high level of competency using two of the three, targeted strategies (i.e., follow-in comments, follow-in directives). However, use of a third strategy (i.e., responsive object play) was not maintained above baseline levels. The follow-in comments strategy was used by the participating father more frequently than the follow-in directives strategy. Small increases were documented for child use of spontaneous single words across intervention phases and increased single word use over was maintained eight weeks following intervention. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: The present study provided information regarding the efficacy of a clinically relevant hybrid parent-coaching program, tailored to both father and child characteristics, to enhance fathers’ use of responsive strategies and increase communication skills for children with ASD.

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.

A study of parent–adolescent interaction

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of family communication patterns (FCP) on adolescents’ choice of influence strategies and parents’ choice of response strategies in situations of parent–child purchase decision disagreement.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses family triadic (mother–father–child) survey data collected from 294 Korean families. The study develops classifications of adolescent influence strategies and parental response strategies in the initial stage and subsequently investigates the impact of FCP on the adolescent child’s use of influence strategies and each parent’s use of response strategies. The final stage of the study involved an exploratory investigation aimed at discovering the adolescent influence strategies and parental response strategies that are likely used in conjunction.FindingsResults show an overall significant impact of FCP on both adolescents’ use of influence strategies and parents’ use of response strategies. They further reveal that Korean mothers tended to encounter their children’s persistent influence attempts with unyielding, strict response strategies. The types of response strategies used by Korean fathers were not linked to particular types of influence strategies used by their children but linked to their level of education attained and household income.Practical implicationsFindings of this study may help marketers formulate an appropriate marketing communication strategy that can be effective in resolving parent–child purchase disagreement.Originality/valueWith its focus on the adolescent influence strategies, parental response strategies, and FCP as a factor influencing the strategy choice by adolescents and parents, this study provides new insights into the parent–child interaction taking place in situations of parent–child disagreement about a purchase decision.

Collaborative Coaching With Early Head Start Teachers Using Responsive Communication Strategies

This study used a single-case, multiple baseline design to examine the effectiveness of collaborative coaching on three Early Head Start (EHS) teachers’ use of responsive communication strategies with toddlers with communication delays. Child communication targets and teacher communication strategies were measured as secondary outcomes. The coaching approach included a joint planning session in which the interventionist and teachers chose child targets and how to embed strategies within classroom routines. The teachers increased their use of the responsiveness strategies in play and caregiving routines during intervention and maintenance. Child participants also increased their rates of communication during intervention and maintenance. Implications for professional development and the social validity of the approach are discussed.

A role for dorsal and ventral hippocampus in response learning

The hippocampus and the striatum have been traditionally considered as part of different and independent memory systems despite growing evidence supporting that both brain regions may even compete for behavioral control in particular learning tasks. In this regard, it has been reported that the hippocampus could be necessary for the use of idiothetic cues in several types of spatial learning tasks. Accordingly, the ventral striatum receives strong anatomical projections from the hippocampus, suggesting a participation of both regions in goal-directed behavior. Our work examined the role of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus on a response learning task. Cytochrome c oxidase (C.O.) quantitative histochemistry was used as an index of brain oxidative metabolism. In addition, determination of C.O. subunit I levels in the hippocampus by western blot analysis was performed to assess the contribution of this subunit to overall C.O. activity. Increased brain oxidative metabolism was found in most of the studied hippocampal subregions when experimental group was compared with a swim control group. However, no differences were found in the amount of C.O. subunit I expressed in the hippocampus by western blot analysis. Our results support that both the dorsal and ventral hippocampus are associated with the use of response strategies during response learning.

Is Courtesy Enough? 'Solidarity' in Call Center Interactions

Polite self-presentation is expected of call center agents even through they must convey complex and unfavorable information speedily via the telephone. This study identified and evaluated the use of response strategies that are strongly associated with courtesy. Data were drawn from 587 stressful calls in a corpus of 3000 calls recorded at a large Singaporean insurance company call center. We adopted a grounded theory methodology together with a rich triangulation of qualitative (linguistic and rhetorical) and quantitative (scalar and correlational) methods. Tools for coding response strategies (independent variables)and courtesy (dependent variables) were developed via analyses of calls, interviews with call center agents and management, and a series of evaluations involving blind coding and subsequent consensus. We identified four categories of response strategies that are tightly related to each other and to courtesy: shows solidarity, anticipates needs, shows attentiveness, and asks for direction. Correlations and analysis of their enactment in stressful calls led us to propose solidarity expression - responses that engage the caller in search of meaning to work on the task as a team. We argue that solidarity expression challenges traditional views of politeness and is less about the presentation of self and more about enabling collaboration with the other.

Responsiveness of Child Care Providers in Interactions With Toddlers and Preschoolers.

This exploratory study investigated the responsive language input of 26 child care providers to young children enrolled in community child care centers. Three subtypes of responsive interaction strategies were rated and compared across two age groups (toddlers, preschoolers) and two naturalistic contexts (book reading, play dough activity). The toddlers were between 17 and 33 months of age and the preschoolers were between 30 and 53 months of age. Caregiver-child interactions were rated using the Teacher Interaction and Language Rating Scale (Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2000) to provide information about the frequency of responsive language strategies. Caregivers used similar levels of child-centered and interaction-promoting strategies with both age groups, but used more labelling with toddlers and more topic extensions with preschoolers. The context of the interaction exerted a systematic influence on the caregivers' use of responsive strategies, with the play dough activity providing the most responsive input overall. There was a strong positive relationship between all three subtypes of caregivers' responsiveness and variation in the preschoolers' language productivity. In contrast, only interaction-promoting strategies were positively related to measures of the toddlers' language productivity. The results of this study suggest that caregivers' responsiveness in group interactions is highly dependent on the context of the interaction and, to a lesser extent, on the language abilities of the children. Future research is required to determine if inservice training can enhance levels of responsiveness and accelerate language learning in young children in group care.

The development of a same–different inspection time paradigm and the effects of practice

Experiment 1 introduced a same–different letter discrimination task conducted with the inspection time (IT) procedure. The letter IT task was found to eliminate the use of systematic strategies, such as apparent movement and flash cues; in the past, such strategies have made the IT–IQ relation difficult to interpret. The IT–IQ relation was found to be as strong under the new task as that found under the typical task, with higher-IQ participants outperforming their lower-IQ counterparts across both IT tasks. Experiment 2 explored the effect of practice on IT, as assessed by the letter IT task, and the impact that it may have on the IT–IQ relation. Practice resulted in a significant linear increase in accuracy and an attenuation in the IT–IQ relation; this improvement cannot simply be attributed to more efficient use of response strategies. These findings suggest that at least one component of mental speed that is sensitive to practice may be an important factor underlying the correlation between IT and IQ.

The effects of electrolytic lesion to the shell subterritory of the nucleus accumbens on delayed non-matching-to-sample and four-arm baited eight-arm radial-maze tasks.

The effects of bilateral electrolytic lesions of the "shell" subterritory of the nucleus accumbens in the rat were examined on 2 tasks known to be sensitive to hippocampal damage. Experiment 1 tested the effects of shell lesion on delayed non-matching-to-sample (DNMS) task in a T-maze. The maze was rotated 180 degrees after the end of acquisition. Experiment 2 used a 4-arm baited, 4-arm unbaited, 8-arm radial-maze task and its reversal. Shell lesion led to impaired acquisition of DNMS in a T-maze and of 4-arm baited, 4-arm unbaited, 8-arm radial maze tasks, suggestive of mnemonic deficits. Following analysis of animals' choice pattern in both tasks, the deficit was interpreted as being largely due to an extensive use of response strategy. The results suggest that the inappropriate use of response strategy by shell animals was a result of their inability to switch from initial response strategy to a later, more appropriate, memory-dependent strategy.

Behavioural strategies, sensorial processes and hippocampal mossy fibre distribution in radial maze performance in mice

Eight isogenic mice groups (6 inbred strains and 2 F1 hybrid generations) were tested on an eight-arm radial maze, using either a procedure of confinement (C) or a non-confinement (NC) to the central platform between trials, in order to control for the use of response strategies in learning. On the 6th day of training, the spatial surrounding was impoverished by removing the most salient visual cues of the room; thus allowing testing for the effective use of spatial cues during learning. Results showed that learning profiles and performance levels varied between strains within each procedure. These variations could correspond to a heterogeneity of the underlying perceptual processes involved in learning, since only some strains in each procedure were disturbed by the removal of spatial cues. Correlations between behavioural results and the distribution of mossy fibres in the hippocampus were analysed. The intercorrelation matrix revealed that correlations between the size of the infra-intrapyramidal synaptic field (IIP-MF) and some behavioural indices occurred only during the first trial on the maze, whatever the procedure. Learning performances on the 5th day of training did not correlate with any hippocampal measure. When the spatial surrounding was impoverished, on the 6th day of training, correlations with mossy fibres appeared only in the confinement procedure.

Children's categorization of consonants by manner and place characteristics.

Ten normal-speaking 5-year-olds and 10 normal-speaking 7-year-olds were required to categorize consonants as "dripping" (stop) or "flowing" (fricative) and as "tongue" (lingual place of articulation) or "lip" (labial place of articulation). Both groups of children performed more accurately than would be expected on the basis of chance alone. However, 5-year-olds performed more poorly than did 7-year-olds, primarily because 5-year-olds were significantly less accurate than 7-year-olds in categorizing according to manner. Children's ability to categorize was evaluated as an indicator of their awareness of feature characteristics of consonants. Their performance does not unambiguously reflect feature awareness but may be related to other variables such as their use of response strategies or the nature of the task.

Response strategies in the radial arm maze: Running around in circles

The effects of the size of the central arena on the use of response strategies by rats on an eight-arm elevated maze were examined. The size of the central arena had no effect on accuracy, but the use of adjacent arms increased significantly with a larger central arena, regardless of the size of arena to which rats were first exposed. These results are interpreted in terms of foraging efficiency.