This study investigated the effects of anaphoric cuing on the reading comprehension of 17 adolescent students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 19 typically developing (TD) students matched on age, intellectual ability and word decoding ability. In a within-subject design, participants read four Chinese passages of two types (narrative fictional vs. narrative nonfictional) under two conditions (control [reading only] vs. anaphoric cuing). The ASD group showed significantly poorer reading comprehension than the TD group in the control condition. Contrary to prediction, anaphoric cuing produced a hindrance effect rather than facilitation effect on the reading comprehension performance of both groups. Correlation analysis showed different patterns between ASD and TD groups in the relationship between the ability to resolve anaphora and comprehension of the two types of passages. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Previous research has been interested in studying parental emotion socialization practices in parents of typically developing (TD) children. The current study aimed to explore such practices among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Seventy-eight families participated in this study. Self-reported rating scales were adopted to measure the child's social competence, parenting stress and maternal emotional styles. As hypothesized, results showed significantly different patterns in maternal emotional styles between mothers of children with ASD and those with TD children. However, inconsistent to our hypothesis, the maternal emotional styles were found to be neither related to child's social competence nor parenting stress within the ASD group. Implications of findings on future research and practice are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Background. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interaction, communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Given the heterogeneity of ASD it is important to understand individual differences within the disorder that are related to cognitive and language development, and how such differences may be related to differences in caregiver behavior or aspects of the social environment. Joint attention is an important component of early social communication and is considered to be a “core deficit” of ASD (Kasari, Freeman, Paparella, Wong, Kwon, & Gulsrud, 2005). Individual differences in joint attention during infancy have been shown to relate to language and cognitive development (Mundy, Block, Delgado, Pomares, Van Hecke, & Parlade, 2007; Nichols, Martin, & Fox, 2005). Therefore, joint attention serves an essential role in the study of child behavior within ASD across development. The present study consists of two manuscripts that explored how joint attention in children with ASD related to sensory responsiveness and social competence (Study 1), and how child joint attention related to mother attention and contextual factors (Study 2). Specifically, Study 1 investigated relations among children's sensory responses, dyadic orienting, joint attention, and their subsequent social competence with peers. Participants were 38 children (18 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 20 developmentally matched children with typical development) between the ages of 2.75 and 6.5 years. Observational coding was conducted to assess children's joint attention and dyadic orienting in a structured social communication task. Children's sensory responses and social competence were measured with parent report. Group differences were observed in children's joint attention, sensory responses, multisensory dyadic orienting, and social competence, with the ASD group showing significantly greater social impairment and sensory responses compared with their typical peers. Atypical sensory responses were negatively associated with individual differences on social competence subscales. Interaction effects were observed between diagnostic group and sensory responses with diagnostic group moderating the relation between sensory responses and both joint attention and social competence abilities. Study 2 investigated relations between child joint attention and mother attention during three social contexts (competing demands, teaching, and free play) among 44 children with ASD between the ages of 2.5 and 5.6 years, and their mothers. Observational coding was conducted to assess children’s joint attention and mother’s dyadic orienting. Children’s expressive and receptive language was measured by teacher report. The rate of children’s joint attention, and mothers’ dyadic orienting differed depending on the context of their interaction. Children’s joint attention, expressive and receptive language, age, and ASD severity, and mother dyadic orienting were related, and these relations differed by context. Child initiating joint attention (IJA) was also related to mother attention, and this relation was moderated by the child’s expressive and receptive language. A temporal contingency was revealed for the association between child IJA and mother attention with a bi-directional association such that child IJA predicted subsequent mother attention, and mother attention predicted subsequent child IJA. When the sample was split by children’s language ability (i.e., minimally-verbal and verbal groups) there was a group by receptive language, and a group by expressive language interaction on the contingency between child IJA and subsequent mother attention. Conclusion. The results from study 1 and study 2 suggest that individual differences in children with ASD, including their sensory responses and social competence, as well as mother attention and contextual factors are related to children’s joint attention. When addressing theory and interventions for children with ASD, it is important to consider children’s language and sensory sensitivities, the demands of the interactive context, and factors related to mother attention and approach to her child.

Peer aggression can take the form of physical hostility, adverse peer pressure, teasing, shunning, and social rejection (Little, 2002). Repeated acts of peer aggression are considered peer victimization and affect children with disabilities more often than children with no reported disabilities or psychiatric disorders (Baumeister, Storch, & Geffken, 2008; Pittet, Berchtold, Akre, Michaud & Suris, 2011). Personal characteristics and contextual factors have been linked to higher rates of peer aggression and the presence of peer victimization (Baumeister, et al., 2008; Bejerot & Morthberg, 2009; Boivin, Vitaro, & Bukowski, 1999; Hodges, Boivin, Vitaro, & Bukowski, 1999; Mishna, 2003). Youth who have experienced peer victimization have been found to suffer consequent loneliness, depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and suicidal ideation (Bond, Carlin, Thomas, Rubin, & Patton, 2001; Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Hunter, Boyle & Warden, 2007; Siegal, La Greca, & Harrison, 2009). The present study used a caregiver survey to investigate experiences of peer aggression and peer victimization, as well as factors linked to such victimization among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), with other disabilities (OD), and without disabilities (WD). The main analyses addressed five sets of research questions. The first three research questions pertained to all three groups of participants and (1) compared rates of peer aggression and the proportion of children who experienced peer victimization between the ASD, OD and WD groups, (2) asked which personal factors were associated with peer aggression and peer victimization, and (3) asked which personal factors best predicted peer aggression and peer victimization. The last two research questions pertained to the ASD and OD groups only (disability group) and asked (1) which personal factors and contextual factors were associated with peer aggression and peer victimization, and (2) which personal factors and contextual factors best predicted peer aggression and peer victimization. The main analyses indicated that children with ASD and OD experienced significantly greater rates of peer aggression than peers in the WD group. Additionally, the ASD and OD groups of children were more likely to experience peer victimization than the WD group.Peer aggression was correlated with autistic traits, anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, thought problems, and attention problems. A multiple regression analysis indicated that the variable of anxious/depressed was the only variable that significantly contributed to the model and it accounted for approximately one-third of the variance. Caregivers whose children experienced peer victimization reported significantly higher scores in autistic characteristics, anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, thought problems, and attention problems. A forward logistic regression analysis indicated that anxious/depressed was the only variable that predicted peer victimization. The multiple regression and forward logistic regression models produced for the combined ASD and OD group were similar to the models produced during the prior analyses for all three groups. Anxious/depressed was the only variable that significantly contributed to the multiple linear regression and forward logistic regression models. Contextual variables were not correlated with peer aggression or associated with peer victimization and they did not significantly contribute to the regression models.

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 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.