An interest‐based intervention package to increase peer social interaction in young children with autism spectrum disorder

The literature suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) educated in inclusive settings generally do not interact with typically developing classmates during social activities. This study assessed whether an intervention package consisting of interest‐based structured play activities involving adult instruction, modeling, and response to child questions would result in an increase in social interaction with typically developing peers. A multiple baseline design across four participants with an embedded reversal was used to demonstrate the effects of the intervention on social interaction during structured play sessions. Initiations, responses, and interactive play increased for all participants. Generalization to novel peers was observed, and treatment gains were maintained during 6‐week follow‐up sessions. Recommendations for practitioners working with children with ASD in inclusive settings and potential areas of future research are discussed.     

Teaching conversational speech to children with autism spectrum disorder using text‐message prompting

The present study was designed to teach conversational speech using text‐message prompts to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in home play settings with siblings and peers. A multiple baseline design across children was used. Children learned conversational speech through the text‐message prompts, and the behavior generalized across peers and settings. Maintenance of treatment gains was seen at 1‐month follow‐up probes. Social validity measures indicated that parents of typically developing children viewed the participants' conversational speech as much improved after the intervention. Results are discussed in terms of the efficacy of text‐message prompts as a promising way to improve conversational speech for children with ASD.     

An extension of commonly used toilet-training procedures to children with autism spectrum disorder

The current study evaluated a toilet-training treatment package described by Greer et al. (2016) with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most of the current research on toilet-training interventions for children with ASD are replications and modifications of Azrin and Foxx (1971) or (more recently) LeBlanc et al. (2005). However, these procedures are composed of components that are not included in studies with typically developing (TD) children. For example, Greer et al. evaluated the effectiveness of three typical components within a toilet-training package, mostly with TD participants: a 30-min sit schedule, placing participants in underwear, and differential reinforcement. The primary purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend the treatment package described by Greer et al. to children with ASD. A secondary purpose was to evaluate modifications necessary for individualized toilet training when the commonly used components were ineffective. The results of Greer et al. were replicated for 11 participants with ASD in the current study, suggesting that intensive toileting interventions (e.g., interventions requiring overcorrection, reprimands, and dense sit schedules) may only be necessary for a subset of individuals with ASD.     

Using equivalence-based instruction to teach piano skills to children

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) on learning to play individual notes and simple songs on the piano. Participants were 4 typically developing children and 4 children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They were exposed to a series of auditory–visual matching-to-sample procedures using musical stimuli. Following training, participants were tested on the emergence of novel untrained relations and generalization in the form of playing two songs on a keyboard. Results suggest that the EBI was effective in teaching piano playing skills with both typically developing children and children with ASD. The success of this procedure is indicative of the wide-ranging applications of EBI to novel and creative domains.     

AN EVALUATION OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN QUALITY OF ATTENTION AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT WITH CHILDREN WHO DISPLAY ESCAPE‐MAINTAINED PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

The choice‐making behavior of 2 typically developing children who engaged in problem behavior maintained by negative reinforcement was evaluated within a concurrent‐operants assessment that varied the quality of attention across free‐play and demand conditions. The results demonstrated that it was possible to bias responding towards academic demands for both participants by providing high‐quality attention, despite the continuous availability of negative reinforcement. The current study extended brief clinical methods with typically developing children and demonstrated how different qualities of attention provided across concurrent schedules could bias responding.     

Primary school children rate children with autism negatively on looks,speech and speech content

Adults and adolescents form negative first impressions of ASD adults and children. We examined the first impression ratings of primary school children (6–9 years) of their ASD peers. 146 school children rated either silent videos, speech or transcribe speech from 14 actors (7 ASD, 7 TD). The ASD actors were rated more negatively than the typically developing actors on all three stimulus types. Children with ASD are likely to be judged more negatively than their peers at the very start of their formal education. Contrary to previous research, for primary school children, the content of the speech was judged as negatively as the delivery of the speech.     

Behaviors of children with high‐functioning autism when paired with typically developing versus delayed peers: a preliminary study

Children with high‐functioning autistic disorder (HAD) in a comprehensive behavioral treatment program (n = 9, age = 5–7 years) alternated between pairings with a typically developing peer and pairings with a peer who had both autism and developmental delay. All pairings took place in a free play setting. The children with HAD displayed much more interactive play and speech (as well as much less self‐stimulation) with typically developing peers than with delayed peers. They received frequent cues and consequences for interaction from typically developing peers, but not in sessions with delayed peers. These results suggest that placement with typically developing peers is critical for children with HAD in behavioral treatment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attenuation of change blindness in children with autism spectrum disorders

Change blindness refers to the difficulty most people find in detecting a difference between two pictures when these are presented successively, with a brief interruption between. Attention at the site of the change is required for detection. A number of studies have investigated change blindness in adults and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Some have produced evidence that people with ASD find changes to social stimuli harder to detect and changes to non‐social stimuli easier to detect, relative to comparison participants. However, other studies have produced entirely contradictory findings. There is a need for consistency in methodology to aid understanding of change blindness and attentional processes in ASD. Here, we replicate a change blindness study previously carried out with typically developing (TD) children and adults and with adults with ASD. Results reveal attenuated change blindness for non‐social stimuli in children with ASD relative to TD norms. Our results are interpreted, alongside others' findings, as potentially indicative of a complex relationship between different influences on attention over time.     

Teaching social perception skills to adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities using video‐based group instruction

Few interventions focus on teaching social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID) that are consistently used during interactions with peers ( Carter et al., 2014). The present study evaluated the effects of video‐based group instruction (VGI) on the acquisition of social perception skills of five adolescents with ASD or ID in a public school setting. Social perception involves observing affective behaviors of others, discriminating relevant environmental stimuli, and differentially reinforcing the affective behavior of another person. Typically developing peers supported VGI implementation as social partners for participants. A multiple probe design across behaviors demonstrated the effectiveness of VGI for teaching social perception skills. Four of five participants acquired and maintained the targeted social perception skills, and we observed some transfer to a nontreatment setting. Results of this study suggest VGI may support the acquisition of social perception among adolescents with ASD or ID.     

Electrophysiological evidence of heterogeneity in visual statistical learning in young children with ASD

Statistical learning is characterized by detection of regularities in one's environment without an awareness or intention to learn, and it may play a critical role in language and social behavior. Accordingly, in this study we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of visual statistical learning in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using an event‐related potential shape learning paradigm, and we examined the relation between visual statistical learning and cognitive function. Compared to typically developing (TD) controls, the ASD group as a whole showed reduced evidence of learning as defined by N1 (early visual discrimination) and P300 (attention to novelty) components. Upon further analysis, in the ASD group there was a positive correlation between N1 amplitude difference and non‐verbal IQ, and a positive correlation between P300 amplitude difference and adaptive social function. Children with ASD and a high non‐verbal IQ and high adaptive social function demonstrated a distinctive pattern of learning. This is the first study to identify electrophysiological markers of visual statistical learning in children with ASD. Through this work we have demonstrated heterogeneity in statistical learning in ASD that maps onto non‐verbal cognition and adaptive social function.     

Effects of delay on episodic memory retrieval by children with autism spectrum disorder

Twenty‐seven 6‐ to 15‐year‐old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 32 typically developing (TD) children were questioned about their participation in a set of activities after a 2‐week delay and again after a 2‐month delay using a best practice interview protocol. Interviews were coded for completeness with respect to the gist of the event, the number of narrative details provided, and accuracy. Results indicated that children with ASD did not differ from TD peers on any dimensions of memory after both delays. Specifically, both groups of children provided equivalently complete accounts on both occasions. However, children in both groups provided significantly fewer narrative details about the event in the second interview, and the accuracy rates were lower. The findings indicate that, like TD children, children with ASD can provide meaningful and reliable testimony about an event they personally experienced, but several aspects of their memory reports deteriorate over time.     

Representing intentions in self and other: studies of autism and typical development

Two experiments were conducted to explore the extent to which individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as well as young typically developing (TD) children, are explicitly aware of their own and others’ intentions. In Experiment 1, participants with ASD were significantly less likely than age‐ and ability‐matched comparison participants to correctly recognize their own knee‐jerk reflex movements as unintentional. Performance on this knee‐jerk task was associated with performance on measures of false belief understanding, independent of age and verbal ability, in both participants with ASD and TD children. In Experiment 2, participants with ASD were significantly less able than comparison participants to correctly recognize their own or another person’s mistaken actions as unintended, in a ‘Transparent Intentions’ task ( Russell & Hill, 2001 ; Russell, Hill & Franco, 2001 ). Performance on aspects of the Transparent Intentions task was associated with performance on measures of false belief understanding, independent of age and verbal ability, in both participants with ASD and TD children. This study suggests that individuals with ASD have a diminished awareness of their own and others’ intentions and that this diminution is associated with other impairments in theory of mind.     

Unimpaired attentional disengagement in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder

A prominent hypothesis holds that ‘sticky’ attention early in life in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) limits their ability to explore and learn about the world. Under this hypothesis, the core clinical symptoms of ASD – restricted interests, repetitive behaviors and impaired social/communication abilities – could all result from impaired attentional disengagement during development. However, the existence of disengagement deficits in children with ASD is controversial, and a recent study found no deficit in 5‐ to 12‐year‐olds with ASD. Nonetheless, the possibility remains that disengagement is impaired earlier in development in children with ASD, altering their developmental trajectory even if the attentional deficit itself is remediated or compensated for by the time children with ASD reach school age. Here, we tested this possibility by characterizing attentional disengagement in a group of toddlers just diagnosed with ASD (age 21 to 37 months). We found strikingly similar performance between the ASD and age‐matched typically developing (TD) toddlers, and no evidence of impaired attentional disengagement. These results show that even at a young age when the clinical symptoms of ASD are first emerging, disengagement abilities are intact. Sticky attention is not a fundamental characteristic of ASD, and probably does not play a causal role in its etiology.     

FADING TEACHER PROMPTS PROM PEER-INITIATION INTERVENTIONS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

This study examined a system for fading teacher prompts to children who served as peers in peer-initiation interventions for young children with disabilities. A teacher taught peers to direct social initiations to children with disabilities, provided verbal prompts for those initiations, and introduced a system that provided peers with visual feedback about the social interactions of the children with disabilities. She then systematically withdrew the verbal prompts to peers, and subsequently faded the visual feedback system. Peer initiations increased when the intervention began and resulted in increases in social interaction for the children with disabilities. As the teacher systematically faded the prompts and visual feedback to the peers, social interaction continued at the levels found during intervention and was maintained during a short maintenance period.     

孤独症儿童的情绪共情能力及情绪表情注意方式

研究探讨了孤独症儿童的情绪共情能力及情绪表情注意方式的特点。各选取15名孤独症儿童以及作为对照组的智力障碍儿童和普通儿童各15名, 完成情绪共情实验, 同时使用生物反馈仪记录自主生理反应, 眼动仪记录眼动轨迹。结果发现孤独症儿童对情绪表情的自动模仿及感知能力显著低于智力障碍儿童与普通儿童; 对面孔的总注视时间、总注视点数均显著少于智力障碍儿童、普通儿童; 对眼部、嘴部的注视时间比及注视点数比均显著低于普通儿童; 对高兴和悲伤表情的注意较多而对恐惧则较少。这提示孤独症儿童的情绪共情能力不足、对情绪表情的注意方式异常。     

Consolidation of vocabulary is associated with sleep in typically developing children,but not in children with dyslexia

Sleep is known to play an active role in consolidating new vocabulary in adults; however, the mechanisms by which sleep promotes vocabulary consolidation in childhood are less well understood. Furthermore, there has been no investigation into whether previously reported differences in sleep architecture might account for variability in vocabulary consolidation in children with dyslexia. Twenty‐three children with dyslexia and 29 age‐matched typically developing peers were exposed to 16 novel spoken words. Typically developing children showed overnight improvements in novel word recall; the size of the improvement correlated positively with slow wave activity, similar to previous findings with adults. Children with dyslexia showed poorer recall of the novel words overall, but nevertheless showed overnight improvements similar to age‐matched peers. However, comparisons with younger children matched on initial levels of novel word recall pointed to reduced consolidation in dyslexics after 1 week. Crucially, there were no significant correlations between overnight consolidation and sleep parameters in the dyslexic group. This suggests a reduced role of sleep in vocabulary consolidation in dyslexia, possibly as a consequence of lower levels of learning prior to sleep, and highlights how models of sleep‐associated memory consolidation can be usefully informed by data from typical and atypical development.     

Using concurrent reinforcement schedules and prompts to produce varied manding: A replication of Seaver and Bourret (2020)

Deficits in social communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior or interests are displayed by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Given this, individuals with ASD may engage with a limited variety of reinforcers. Treatments designed to modify the distribution of manding may allow individuals to contact a broad array of reinforcers that could improve the quality of life for individuals with ASD (Seaver & Bourret, 2020). The purpose of the current study was to replicate the results of Seaver and Bourret (2020) by evaluating the effects of manipulating concurrent schedules of reinforcement, alone and with prompts, on the rates of target manding in three boys with ASD, aged 7–9 years, in the United Arab Emirates. All three participants showed increased target manding following intervention. The findings support the use of concurrent reinforcement schedules and prompts as an effective intervention to produce varied manding.