Two testing conditions (immediate and delayed) were used to test for the presence of imitation and emulation in typically developing and developmentally delayed children, including children with autism spectrum disorder, ranging in age from 2.8-years old and 4.0-years old, in two experiments, Experiment I (n=20), Experiment II (n=30). Using a mixed within-between design, I compared the performance of the two groups across various tasks in two testing conditions and analyzed their performance. The participants were selected because they fit the criteria of 1) being between the age of 2.5 and 4 years of age at the onset of the study, 2) had gross motor and generalized imitation in repertoire, and 3) observational learning was present. The independent variable was the test interval in both experiments across both testing conditions, immediate and delayed. The dependent variables were the unconsequated responses during the test interval (Experiment I and II). The embedded dependent variable in Experiment II was the number of 5s intervals participants interacted with a puzzle box in the free play setting. Responses were defined as imitation (copy the specific actions with point-to-point correspondence), or emulation (bring about the model’s goal by the observer’s own methods and means, no point-to-point correspondence but same end result). In the first experiment I found that although typically developing preschoolers often imitate in the short term, they were more likely to emulate in the long term when not shown again how to use the items. In contrast the participants with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to imitate across both testing conditions. My findings support evidence that typically developing children naturally shift from imitation to emulation and that children are in fact emulators in contrast to research that suggests otherwise. For those children with autism, Experiment I, supports evidence that they are potentially missing a developmental cusp (emulation). Experiment II sought to replicate the findings in Experiment I and differed in that 1) more tasks were added, 2) more participants were used, and 2) a free play observation session was added. The results from Experiment II supported the results from Experiment I, in that, all participants (typically developing and those with autism) were more likely to imitate in the short-term immediate testing condition; however, typically developing children naturally shifted to an emulative response given a delay, whereas, those children with autism continued to emit imitative behaviors given a delay, signifying that children with autism are missing the developmental cusp of emulation. The findings support the notion that emulation is a developmental cusp and that children with autism often are missing this developmental cusp.

I conducted a descriptive analysis on the emission of vocal and non-vocal social/verbal interactions between 35 dyads of preschool-aged-children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their mothers. Using previously recorded videos of 5-min isolated free-play sessions between the mother-child dyads, I transduced each occurrence of verbal operants, attempted verbal operants (i.e., emissions not reinforced by a listener), and additional verbal behaviors such as fantasy play emitted by the child, and approvals and disapprovals emitted by the mother. Each verbal behavior was defined as either vocal verbal behavior, non-lexical vocal verbal behavior, or non-vocal verbal behavior, all with a function to communicate. The procedure consisted of identifying each instance of verbal behavior emitted between the mother and child rotating across listener and speaker responses until either no response occurred, or the session concluded. The listener and speaker responses were further transduced into individual initiated conversational units (speaker-listener-speaker rotations). These data were statistically analyzed with previously collected child educational variables and mother demographic variables: child's level of verbal behavior in accordance with the Verbal Behavior Developmental Assessment-Revised (VBDA-R), number of acquired objectives on the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling International Curriculum and Inventory of Repertoires for Children from Preschool through Kindergarten (C-PIRK), the Autism Diagnosis Observation Schedule-Second Edition (ADOS-2) severity scores, and the scores on the Vineland-3 Adaptive Behavior Scales-Third Edition (VABS-3). The mother demographic variables were level of education and household income. The results of the study were as follow: (1) a significant relationship was shown between the child's level of verbal behavior (extracted from the VBDA-R) and performance on the C-PIRK, VABS-3, and between the ADOS-2 Modules used to assess for ASD severity; (2) the results did not show a significant difference between the child's level of verbal behavior and the number of child-initiated conversational units. The differences in the verbal behavior exchanged between the mother and child were, however, indicated across the child's form of verbal behavior - vocal, non-lexical, and non-vocal verbal behavior - emitted with the mother. Results are interpreted as parents of children without vocal verbal behavior require parent training tailored to their child's verbal developmental repertoires rather than their chronological age to ensure all communicative opportunities are captured. Educational implications, limitations, and future avenues of research are discussed.

Background. Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) report higher levels of stress and experience more marital strain and divorce than parents of typically developing children and parents of children with other disabilities. However, no studies have yet examined the relationship between parental attributions or beliefs and observed parenting behaviors for parents of children with ASD, a particularly challenging parenting context. Promising experimental and intervention studies suggest that parents’ perception of controllability can be modified, with consequential changes in parents’ actual parenting behaviors (Bugental & Happaney, 2002; Slep & O'Leary, 1998). The present dissertation seeks to extend the study of the relationship between parental cognitions and behaviors by understanding the role of cognitions for mothers in a community sample at high risk for elevated parenting stress, and by evaluating how the relationship between cognitions and parenting behaviors may vary based on the child’s level of functioning. Parenting behaviors were observed across different types of tasks intended to mimic naturalistic dyadic situations in order to identify the degree to which parenting behaviors may vary as a function of context. By identifying whether parental cognitions influence more or less competent parenting strategies, results will guide tailoring of interventions for the needs of this highly stressed population. Methods. Forty-two mother-child dyads, with children ages 2 years and 6 months to 5 years and 6 months, were included in this study. Children were students at a specialized preschool utilizing an Applied Behavior Analysis approach to education, and all participating children had a diagnosis of ASD, verified by either the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (Lord et al., 2012), a gold-standard measure of ASD, or the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition (Schopler, Van Bourgondien, Wellman, & Love, 2010) as part of their study participation. Mother-child dyads participated in several interaction tasks, including a 5-minute teaching task, 5-minutes of free play, and a 2-minute cleanup task, which were videotaped for later coding using the Psychological Multifactor Care Scale — ASD Adapted Preschool Version (Brassard, Donnelly, Hart, & Johnson, 2016). Mothers also completed questionnaires assessing parental stress, cognitions, child behavior problems, and demographic characteristics. Two cognitions were evaluated: attributions of control were measured using an adapted version of the Parent Attribution Test (Bugental, 2011; Woolfson, Taylor, & Mooney, 2011), which has previously been related to harsh parenting behaviors, particularly with maltreating families; and self-efficacy was measured using the Parenting Sense of Competence – Efficacy subscale (Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman, 1978), a widely used measure of parental self-efficacy with a positive relationship to quality of parenting. Parental stress was assessed by the Parenting Stress Index – Fourth Edition, Short Form (Abidin, 2012). Participating children’s classroom teachers completed the Communication domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales –Fourth Edition (Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Saulnier, 2016) as an assessment of children’s level of language functioning, and mothers rated their perceptions of their child’s behavioral functioning using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Results. Multiple regression analysis found significant direct effects of attributions of control for both positive and harsh observed parenting behaviors, and significant interactions between attributions of control, parental self-efficacy, and child language functioning for observed harsh parenting behaviors. Observed harsh parenting behaviors were also predicted by the interacting relationship between parenting stress, self-efficacy, and parent perception of child behavior problems. There was no significant difference in the relationship between parental attributions and observed parenting behaviors between each of the three task types, though harsh parenting behaviors were more frequently observed during free play, relative to teaching and cleanup tasks. Regression models controlled for parental race, parent perception of child behavior problems, and the number of adults in the home – a proxy for caregiving support. Though mothers engaged in infrequent and mild levels of harsh parenting behaviors, those who did reported higher levels of stress, lower self-efficacy, and higher attributions of control, particularly during free play. Conclusions. Parental attributions of control have been found to be a powerful and modifiable variable for maltreating samples, where mothers who believe child control is more important than adult control in impacting the outcome of a failed interaction are more likely to engage in harsh parenting. In this sample, a relationship was found in the opposite direction, in that mothers who perceived adult control as more important displayed more harsh parenting behaviors. The difference is likely related to the significantly distinctive context for parenting a child with ASD, given the unique relational and behavioral characteristics associated with the disorder. Whereas self-efficacy did not directly relate to observed parenting behaviors, it interacted with other family factors to predict parenting behaviors. Directions for future research and clinical implications are discussed.

Purpose: The field of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) intervention research is in need of treatment response measures that are sensitive to change and flexible enough to be used across studies. The Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC) was developed to address this need. The purpose of this work is to examine the initial reliability and validity of the BOSCC in two samples of children with ASD. Method: In a sample of 56 children participating in ongoing early intervention, the primary objectives of Study 1 were to 1) determine items for inclusion in the BOSCC coding scheme, 2) explore the relationships among items using factor analysis, 3) assess inter-rater and test-retest reliability, and 4) explore change over time. Using a sample of school-age, minimally-verbal children, the primary objectives of Study 2 were to extend the results of Study 1 to a new sample to 1) assess BOSCC changes over time, 2) compare changes in BOSCC to clinician determinations of improvement, 3) examine the relationship between change in BOSCC scores with changes in baseline cognitive skills, adaptive functioning, and ASD severity, and 4) compare changes in BOSCC scores in children who did and did not change on other standard measures. Results: Study 1 revealed that the BOSCC has high to excellent inter-rater and test-retest reliability and shows convergent validity with measures of language and communication skills. The BOSCC Core total demonstrated statistically significant amounts of change over time while the ADOS Calibrated Severity Score over the same period did not. Results of Study 2 confirmed excellent inter-rater reliability but the BOSCC did not change significantly over time. Most children were identified by clinicians as improving in response to treatment. However, only 15% of children changed significantly on the BOSCC over 16 weeks of intervention. Limitations: Both studies had small samples of predominantly male, Caucasian children. When interpreting the results of these studies, it is important to consider the differences between samples, including the shorter time of treatment and more cognitively and language impaired children in Study 2. Conclusions: These studies are a first step in the development of a novel outcome measure for social-communication behaviors with applications to clinical trials and longitudinal studies. Future work should continue to explore the benefits and limitations of the BOSCC in larger independent samples.

Challenging behaviors are considered predictors of poor outcomes and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are at increased risk for such behaviors. There is limited research on how the functions of such behaviors and intervention strategies aimed at reducing them may differ by context. Using a researcher-designed survey, this study examined parents’ and teachers’ descriptions of the function of, and strategies for, challenging behaviors among children with and without ASD. A total of 488 respondents completed the survey, including 251 (51.5%) teachers and 237 (48.5%) parents. The participants were recruited in person and via social networking using snowballing and word-of-mouth. The study findings revealed that while both parents and teachers frequently identified avoidance/escape and attention-seeking as functions of challenging behaviors for children with and without ASD, there were some differences in their reports. Most notably, for children with ASD, 28% of parents reported children’s use of challenging behaviors to get attention at home whereas 2% reported this function at school, while 72% of the teachers indicated children’s use of challenging behaviors to seek attention at school and only 10% reported this function at home. The two most common intervention strategies identified by both teachers and parents were reinforcing positive effortful behavior and providing positive attention such as praise and acknowledgement. These finding are critical as they show the differences in the opinions towards the use of challenging behaviors in the home and school settings as reported by parents and teachers and inform future intervention efforts aimed at addressing challenging behaviors in varying contexts.

There is increasing interest in the role of peers in facilitating the social interaction of pupils with ASD through Peer-mediated Interventions (PMI). A systematic literature review was conducted to provide an overview of methods used to evaluate the impact of PMI and provide examples of innovative practice. Four databases were searched. Following application of inclusion and exclusion criteria and coding of studies, 10 were included in the final review. The review found that measuring the outcome of PMI at the level of target pupils has been a focus, with less attention given to exploring experiences of participants; impact on peers and implementation of PMI within an educational context. An innovative PMI was implemented within a mainstream primary school to promote the social inclusion of a Year 3 male pupil with ASD, with his class and five peers. Key elements of the PMI included development of the programme with school staff, whole class awareness raising and a small group peer network. The intervention was evaluated through structured playground observations of pupil-peer interaction, interviews with the target pupil and school staff and a peer focus group. Findings indicated that this small-scale PMI had a positive impact at the level of the target pupil and peers. Key factors facilitating the implementation of this intervention within a school context were also identified. A structured dissemination strategy that involved consultation activities with key stakeholders explored the refinement of an ecologically valid and feasible model for delivery in mainstream schools. Future considerations in developing the intervention framework include; refining elements of the programme based on feedback from key stakeholders and trialling the delivery of the intervention by school staff trained in the programme. Implications for Educational Psychologists (EPs) in the development and delivery of the intervention are discussed.

Conclusion. The present study revealed specific memory deficits profile of ASD children associated with ineffective use of organization strategies. Together with their deviated EEG coherence pattern, it has implicated that the memory deficits associated with ASD was possibly subserved by dysfunctional cooperation in frontal and frontal-posterior cortical regions. The potential benefits of explicit cueing and subtle effect of implicit cue on memory performance and neural functional cooperation in ASD were discussed. / Method. Twenty-three children with high-functioning ASD and 39 normal children (NC) aged 5 to 14 years were recruited. In experiment 1, their memory was assessed with the Hong Kong List Learning Test (HKLLT), a memory test of disorganized (DIS) and semantically organized (ORG) words. In experiment 2, their memory of abstract geometric figure (Rey-O) and nameable object (Object Recognition Test, ORT) was tested. The objects in the ORT were presented in DIS or ORG manner. While semantic cue was given explicitly in the HKLLT, it was delivered implicitly in the ORT. In experiment 3, EEG theta coherences connecting anterior, temporal and posterior brain regions were recorded before and during the ORT. / Objective. Some studies found that autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) associated memory deficits were related to frontal lobe dysfunctions, e.g., ineffective organization strategy for memory. Yet, the memory profile of ASD remains inconclusive. The present study aims to examine the memory profile of ASD children based on the information processing model and its association with their organization strategies adopted, and to explore the effect of 'voiced' (with explicit instruction) and 'unvoiced' (without instruction) experimenter-provided organization cueing on memory retrieval. The neuro-physiological basis underlying their memory process was also explored using electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence. / Results. ASD children showed frontal-lobe-related memory problems, with encoding and retrieval deficits, and vulnerability to interference. Their memory deficits were associated with ineffective use of organization strategies. Hyper-coherence at inter-hemispheric anterior-posterior connections and lesser reduction in intra-left anterior coherence correlated with their poorer recognition. Explicit cueing has enhanced semantic clustering and delayed recall of words. Yet, the effect of 'unvoiced' cueing was subtle, with a trend of improving severer memory impairment and suppressing excessive coherence. / Sze, Lai Man. / Adviser: Agnes Sui Yin Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-01, Section: B, page: 0674. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-85). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Social cognitive abilities are needed to process and understand social information in order to respond appropriately in everyday social interactions. While there are a number of tests that have been developed to measure social cognition in the literature, many have important limitations such as only assessing one ability, performance being predicted by measures of intelligence and exhibiting low ecological validity. To address some of these limitations, I developed a new test called the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT). The ESCoT is an animated test that assesses four domains of social cognition: cognitive Theory of Mind (ToM) (What is X thinking?); affective ToM (How does X feel at the end of the animation?); interpersonal understanding of social norms (Did X behave as other people should behave?); and intrapersonal understanding of social norms (Would you have acted the same as X in the animation?). The aims of this thesis were to examine the validity of the ESCoT as a test of social cognition and to further investigate social cognitive processes in healthy and neurological populations. The ESCoT was firstly administered to a healthy population of older, middle-aged and younger adults to examine the effects of ageing on social abilities. This study found that the ESCoT was sensitive to age; poorer performances on cognitive and affective ToM and also interpersonal but not intrapersonal understanding of social norms were predicted by older age. Furthermore unlike traditional tests used in the study, performance was not predicted by measures of intelligence. Instead, the sex of participants and autistic-like traits, in addition to age were found to be important for performance. The ESCoT was then validated in a sample of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and performance was compared to performance on established social cognition tests. Convergent validity was demonstrated in the study and the ESCoT was sensitive to social cognitive difficulties found in ASD. This study also showed that the ESCoT was more effective than existing tests at differentiating ASD adults and neurotypical controls. The interplay of social anxiety and empathy on ESCoT performance in addition to further exploring sex and autistic-like traits were then examined in a younger adult population. Social anxiety and empathy were not significant predictors of performance on the ESCoT. Similar to the results of the ageing study, this study found that women were better than men on affective ToM. However, unlike the ageing study, better cognitive ToM performance was predicted by older age. Better performance on interpersonal understanding of social norms and ESCoT total scores were predicted by more years of education. The subsequent chapter then examined the clinical efficacy of the ESCoT in a patient population (Alzheimer's disease, behavioural-variant Frontotemporal dementia and amnestic mild cognitive impairment). Here performance on the ESCoT was compared between the patients and neurotypical controls. It was found that patients performed poorer than neurotypical controls on ESCoT total scores, affective ToM, inter-and intrapersonal understanding of social norms. The final chapter returned to healthy ageing to more closely investigate the consequences of healthy ageing on social cognitive processes, by examining the positivity bias (preference for positive over negative stimuli) found in older adults using an attention paradigm. There was no evidence of the positivity bias in older, middle-aged and younger adults in regards to reaction time or accuracy. However, older and middle-aged adults differed in accuracy across stimuli type compared to younger adults. This thesis offers novel insights into the social cognitive abilities of various populations. The ESCoT presents a new, informative and validated test of social cognition for researchers and clinicians to use, which has many advantages over established tests of social cognition.

Very little is known about the ability of low-functioning children with autism (LFA) to engage in collaborative activities. Children with autism have deficits in other-awareness, joint attention and imitation, skills considered fundamental in social cognition and associated with the ability to collaborate. Research has focused on identifying the impairments of LFA children's social interactional abilities in controlled experimental contexts with adult partners. However, there is a paucity of research investigating if LFA children can participate in collaborative activity with peers, and if so what form the collaborative behaviour takes. Children with autism are highly motivated to interact with technology and technology is evolving fast offering opportunities to apply it to research. Therefore, we used innovative technology and a novel software architecture called Separate Control of Shared Space (SCoSS) on three types of shareable computer technology to aid our investigation of other-awareness and collaboration in LFA children. Paper 1, describes two studies using a dual-control laptop to present picture-sorting tasks to children paired with an adult and peer. SCoSS was more effective at facilitating other-awareness in TD and LFA children than a standard interface. Crucially, LFA children showed no active other-awareness without the supportive interface. Paper 2 presented two different picture-sorting problems for pairs of LFA children to solve. This yielded a model of collaborative problem-solving based on a sequence of three prerequisite capacities. Paper 3 successfully applied the SCoSS framework to picture-sequencing tasks delivered via tablet technology. As in paper 1, pairs of LFA children were only actively aware of a peer using linked dual-tablets, analogous to SCoSS. In summary, the thesis presents evidence that the other-awareness of LFA children can be facilitated by technology to support collaborative problem-solving, providing a more complete profile of their abilities and offers evidence that LFA are sensitive to the type of collaborative partner.

Orientador: Silvia Regina Ricco Lucato Sigolo / Banca: Maria Júlia Canazza Dall'Acqua / Banca: Vera Lucia Messias Fialho Capellini / Resumo: O movimento da inclusão escolar traz muitas dúvidas, principalmente em relação à escolarização e apresenta ainda muitos desafios. No caso de crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA), estes parecem ser maiores diante de suas características específicas (dificuldades de socialização e de comunicação) e de estereótipos predeterminados por concepções equivocadas dos profissionais e familiares que se relacionam com elas. O objetivo deste estudo foi descrever o processo educacional de crianças de quatro anos de idade com TEA nos contextos de desenvolvimento e aprendizagem na Educação Infantil e no Atendimento Educacional Especializado (AEE) da escola comum, bem como na família, buscando entender como se estabelecem as inter-relações entre os diferentes contextos. A fundamentação teórica respaldou-se na Perspectiva Bioecológica do Desenvolvimento Humano proposta por Urie Bronfenbrenner. Participaram da pesquisa três profissionais da Secretaria Municipal de Educação (SME), uma diretora de escola, duas professoras regentes, uma professora itinerante e duas crianças e dois pais, totalizando onze participantes. O estudo se caracteriza como uma pesquisa qualitativa, de natureza descritiva. Foram realizados dois procedimentos de coleta de dados: entrevista com base em roteiros semiestruturados e observação das crianças com TEA com registro em diário de campo. Os principais resultados mostraram que a SME vem atualizando suas propostas para a Educação Infantil e Inclusiva do Município em prol do desenvolvimento e aprendizagem de todas as crianças matriculadas. Ainda, que o conhecimento e as concepções da equipe escolar e dos pais sobre as características de crianças com TEA apoiam-se no entendimento do senso comum. Por fim, sobre o processo de escolarização e de inclusão das crianças com TEA, no contexto da escola comum, tem-se que as professoras o desenvolvem de... / Abstract: The movement of school inclusion brings many questions, especially in relation to education and still presents many challenges. In the case of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), these seem to be higher on their specific characteristics (difficulties in socialization and communication) and predetermined stereotypes by misconceptions of work and family that relate to them. The objective of this study was to describe the educational process of children from four years old with ASD in development contexts and learning in Early Childhood Education and Care Specialized Education (CSE) of the common school as well as in the family, trying to understand how to establish the interrelationships between different contexts. The theoretical framework was endorsed on Bioecological Perspective Human Development proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. The participants were three professionals of the Municipal Secretary Education (MSE), a school principal, two teachers regents, an itinerant teacher and two children and two parents, a total of eleven participants. The study is characterized as a qualitative research of descriptive nature. Two data collection procedures were performed: interview based on semi-structured scripts and observation of children with ASD with daily field. The main results showed that the MSE has updated its proposals for Early Childhood and Inclusive Education of the Municipality for the development and learning of all children enrolled. Still, the knowledge and conceptions of school staff and parents about the characteristics of children with ASD rely on the understanding Special Education student audience of common sense. Finally, on the process of education and inclusion of children with ASD, in the context of the common school, it has to be the teachers to develop in order to insert them into society, given that the inclusion should be initiated in the first stage of basic education / Mestre