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.

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.

The theoretical part of the thesis concentrates at the begining on pedagogical profession in general with deeper focus on a repertoire of techers' activities. There are being charecterised mandatory personal presumptions and competences of teachers. In detail is elaborated the part about autism. The main part of the chapter constitutes of a review of psychological and medicinal aproach to this issue, diagnostical criteria and a overview of all the pervasive developmental disorders. The final part describes the possibilities of educating children with autism not just in the Czech republic but as well in other european countries. The empirical part of the thesis shows results of qualitative research focused on evaluation of psychological specifics of the work of teachers educating children with autism in the Czech republic from the point of view of the teachers and parents. The data were collected by observation, interview and analysis of documents. KEY WORDS Teacher, working competences, autism, educating children with autism.

The general purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of minimally intrusive prompting procedures and preferred stimuli on protodeclarative joint attention initiations in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two boys and one girl diagnosed with ASD participated. The experimenter provided attention and social interaction following protodeclarative initiations throughout all phases of the study. During intervention, a model prompt was delivered every 30 s if the participant failed to initiate a bid for joint attention. Results for the first participant show that a model prompt was sufficient to increase the rate of protodeclarative initiations across stimulus sets. Generalization was seen across sets, but not across environments. Subsequently, the model prompt was sufficient to increase the rate of protodeclarative initiations across sets in a second setting (classroom). Results for the second participant are inconclusive. Data collected during the initial baseline condition show that she engaged in an incompatible verbal response across sets. When pictorial stimuli depicting highinterest items and activities were introduced, the rate of protodeclarative initiations increased over time. We then returned to original baseline condition and saw an initial decrease, followed by a steady increase in the rate of protodeclarative initiations. The third participant withdrew prematurely due to medical reasons. The findings of the current study show that minimally intrusive prompts and natural consequences may be sufficient to establish protodeclarative initiations in children. However, this finding may be limited to only those children for whom social interactions already function as reinforcers.

This study compared the relative reinforcing efficacy of high-preferred and low-preferred stimuli, as determined by two types of preference assessments, on acquisition rates in three children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study also evaluated the indirect effects of preference on students’ stereotypy and problem behavior during instructional periods. Participants were presented with a task and provided high or low-preferred stimuli contingent upon correct responding. Results showed that acquisition occurred more rapidly in the highly preferred condition for some participants. Higher rates of problem behavior occurred in the low preferred condition for all participants. These results highlight the importance of utilizing preference assessment procedures to identify and deliver high-preferred items in skill acquisition procedures for individuals with ASD.

<p>The purpose of this intervention study was to test the possibility and ability of using story book reading as intervention for children with autism by comparing the development outcome of children with autism with and with out using story book reading as language and social interaction intervention. This study is based on the hypothesis that storybook reading can develop the language and social interaction of children with autism.</p><p>Method: The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) was used to assess 10 children with autism who have the same level of severity and join the same special classroom in Yuwaprasart Waithayopatum Child Psychiatric Hospital Patron: HRH Princess Galayani Vadhana as pre and post intervention assessment. The result from ATEC was compared to find the answer for the research question, the data from the interviews with parents of children with autism were categorized as regards the score on language and social interaction development and several variables were also taken into account.</p><p>Result: The result revealed better development outcome in the children with autism who joined the intervention, but the period of reading didn’t show any relation with the quality of development outcome. The story in the storybook play important role in the intervention because children participant paid attention only on the storybook which matched with their interest. The social interaction of participants in the intervention group was significantly developed, they all had better social interaction with their parents (adult participants) and also others such as sibling, but this also did not relate to the amounting of time they had read storybooks with their parents.</p>

The low physical activity levels of children today are a cause for serious concern. When examining certain populations of children, such as children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), there is a possibility of even lower overall physical activity levels. However, when exploring the current literature examining the physical activity levels of children with ASD compared to children without ASD there were conflicting results. Some studies indicate that the physical activity levels between children with ASD and children without ASD are similar. Others indicate that children with ASD were less active than their counterparts. Although many of the previous studies employed sound protocol designs including using objective measures for physical activity, these studies did not appropriately match the groups. A child's environment is one of the determining factors of their overall physical activity levels. Current literature indicates that parents have a significant influence on the physical activity levels of their children. In order to accurately compare the levels of physical activity between children with ASD and without ASD, using appropriate matching groups is crucial. The purpose of this study was to examine the current physical activity levels of children with ASD by matching groups based on similar environments and parental influences. A total of 16 children (8 pairs of siblings) participated in this study. Physical activity levels were examined by the activity counts using accelerometers, evaluating time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and determining if children with ASD met the physical activity recommendations more or less than their siblings. Results indicate no difference in daily physical activity levels and time spent in MVPA were found between siblings. A total of 5 of the 16 children met the recommended amount of physical activity. Only 3 out of the 8 children with ASD met the recommended amount of physical activity. This stresses their time spent in MVPA should be an area of concern for all children and interventions should attempt to increase their MVPA early on. In conclusion, children with ASD were no less active than children without disabilities; however the children are not meeting the current physical activity recommendations. This study also suggests that for children with ASD, it may not be the condition that limits their physical activity, but instead the environmental factors may influence their activity levels. / Graduation date: 2013