A comparative analysis of mother-father speech in the naturalistic home environment

The purpose of this study was to compare qualitatively and quantitatively the communicative interactions of fathers and mothers with their young child in the naturalistic home environment. Ten couples of similar background served as subjects. Three different settings—(a) mother and child, (b) father and child, and (c) mother and father with child—were arranged and 30-minute tape-recordings were made in the homes with the use of wireless recording equipment. Although differences were found as mothers and fathers interacted alone with their child, the similarities outweighed the differences. When both parents were together with their child, there were even fewer differences. The results indicate that both parents can provide very similar programmable input for the child and that the child acquires languages in a rich and highly varied linguistic environment.This research was sponsored by Wichita State University Grant No. 3394-22.     

The relationship between children's sociometric status and ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion

This study explored the relationship between children's sociometric status (SMS) and ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions. As expected, high SMS children obtained significantly higher emotion recognition scores than did low SMS children. However, there was an unanticipated inverse correlation between low SMS children's recognition scores from adult photgraphs and child photographs. Possible reasons for the observed relationships are discussed.     

THE FUNCTIONS OF SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR: AN EXPERIMENTAL-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Data are summarized from 152 single-subject analyses of the reinforcing functions of self-injurious behavior (SIB). Individuals with developmental disabilities referred for assessment and/or treatment over an 11-year period were exposed to a series of conditions in which the effects of antecedent and consequent events on SIB were examined systematically by way of multielement, reversal, or combined designs. Data were collected during approximately 4,000 experimental sessions (1,000 hr), with the length of assessment for individuals ranging from 8 to 66 sessions (M = 26.2) conducted over 2 to 16.5 hr (M = 6.5). Differential or uniformly high responding was observed in 145 (95.4%) of the cases. Social-negative reinforcement (escape from task demands or other sources of aversive stimulation) accounted for 58 cases, which was the largest proportion of the sample (38.1%). Social-positive reinforcement (either attention or access to food or materials) accounted for 40 (26.3%) of the cases, automatic (sensory) reinforcement accounted for 39 (25.7%), and multiple controlling variables accounted for 8 (5.3%). Seven sets of data (4.6%) showed either cyclical or inconsistent patterns of responding that were uninterpretable. Overall results indicated that functional analysis methodologies are extremely effective in identifying the environmental determinants of SIB on an individual basis and, subsequently, in guiding the process of treatment selection. Furthermore, an accumulation of assessment data from such analyses across a large number of individuals provides perhaps the most rigorous approach to an epidemiological study of behavioral function.