This study examines the effects of intervention using a robot on the social interactions of two children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Robots have been shown to facilitate human-robot interaction in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, yet research has not fully investigated the use of robots to enhance interactions between children with ASD and human conversational partners. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of a low-dose intervention procedure using a robot to increase social engagement between each child and his communication partner. Although variable, results were promising and suggested that additional investigation is warranted.

Children with autism exhibit deficits in joint attention initiations, which are crucial to development of language and social skills (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984; Rollins, Wambacq, Mathews, & Reese, 1998; Whalen, Schreibman, & Ingersoll, 2006). Showing an object to a communication partner is an example of a joint attention initiation. A systematic synthesis of interventions targeting joint attention initiations was conducted to guide the development of an intervention for teaching showing behavior. In this study, a video modeling intervention was implemented with four young children with autism. Sessions were conducted during play sessions with the researcher in each participant’s typical therapy context. Following a prescribed baseline, the video modeling intervention was implemented. The video provided a model of an individual showing a toy to a communication partner with narration explaining the four components of the showing behavior: gaining the partner’s attention, making eye contact, extending the toy toward the partner, and commenting on the toy. Following the first four intervention sessions, verbal feedback and practice was added with the video model. The effects of this intervention on accuracy (percentage of components completed) and frequency of showing behavior and generalization to a small group setting with peers were evaluated using a multiple baseline across design across participants. Results indicate that accuracy and frequency of showing behavior increased when the video modeling intervention was implemented. The acquisition, performance, and generalization of showing behavior in relation to the video modeling intervention are discussed. Implications for teaching joint attention initiations and directions for future research are presented. / text

Infants with older siblings on the autism spectrum (ASD-sibs) are at risk for socio-emotional difficulties. ASD-sibs were compared to children of typically developing siblings (TD-sibs) in the Face-to-Face/Still-Face (FFSF) at 6 months and the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS) at 8, 10, 12, 15, and 18 months. ASD-sibs exhibited non-significant trends to smile less and display more neutral affect than TD-sibs during the FFSF. There was a significant status by gender interaction such that male ASD-sibs showed less smiling and lower affective valence compared to male TD-sibs. Additionally, ASD-sibs showed a lack of emotional continuity in the FFSF. ASD-sibs displayed less initiating joint attention, initiating behavioral requesting, and responding to joint attention over time than TD-sibs. Results are discussed with respect to the social orienting model of autism.

The positive link between children's joint attention skills and subsequent language outcomes is well established. There is also abundant evidence that responsive caregiver behaviors lead to optimal language outcomes. Though directive behaviors are generally considered detrimental to children's growth, specific types of directive behaviors which extend or build upon a child's behavior are thought to promote children's learning. No study has examined how caregiver behaviors interact with children's joint attention skills to affect subsequent language. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine how three different caregiver behaviors (Responsiveness, Supportiveness, and Intrusiveness) measured at 18 months moderated the relation between joint attention (also measured at 18 months) and language in two separate samples (a 24-month and a 36-month outcome sample). Intrusiveness was a significant moderator of the relation between RJA and 24-month language. RJA was a significant predictor of 24-month receptive and expressive language only in children whose caregivers had a low to moderate level of intrusiveness. Understanding the child and caregiver factors that promote or hinder children's language outcomes in children at risk for delay may help inform and target interventions that will help improve children's school readiness outcomes.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka faktorer som inverkar på personalens relation till brukarna på ett korttidshem för flerfunktionshindrade ungdomar och unga vuxna, samt att granska hur dessa faktorer influerar varandra. Data har insamlats i huvudsak genom djupintervjuer men också utifrån ett självetnografiskt förhållningssätt. Analysmetoden som använts är Grounded Theory. Resultatet av studien visar att vårdpersonalens relation till brukarna kan kopplas till den nivå av relationell trygghet som upplevs gentemot brukarna på korttidshemmet. Den relationella tryggheten påverkas i sin tur av vårdgivarens personlighet, det upplevda relationella djupet mellan vårdgivaren och brukaren, samt graden av upplevd arbetsrelaterad stabilitet. Ju fler av dessa komponenter som uppnår tillfredställande nivåer, desto högre upplevs den relationella tryggheten, vilket påverkar den arbetsrelaterade motivationen samt graden av engagemang riktad mot brukaren positivt. De fynd som framkommer genom resultatanalysen sammanfattas i två modeller. Den ena tillhandahåller en allmängiltig förklaringsmodell för hur arbetsrelaterade relationer kan förstås utifrån deras givna kontexter – så kallad relationell motivation. Denna modell beskriver hur individers arbetssätt, anknytning och upplevda trygghet på arbetsplatsen påverkar den riktning som de arbetsrelaterade relationerna tar. Modellen utgör en grund för förståelsen av den andra, specifikt mot korttidshemmet, riktade modellen, vilken förklarar vårdpersonalens relation till brukarna. Studiens konklusion är att korttidshemmet bör sträva efter att maximera vårdpersonalens möjligheter till högkvalitativa kontakttillfällen med brukarna. För att detta ska vara möjligt, och för att höga nivåer av relationell trygghet ska kunna uppnås bland vårdgivarna, bör uppkomsten av störande yttre faktorer minimeras på arbetsplatsen.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-70).

A comunicação humana é essencial para que ocorra um processo de interação social. É através dela que os sujeitos podem manifestar suas vontades, desejos, necessidades, estabelecer trocas que resultam em processos de ensino-aprendizagem e participar ativamente da sociedade, comunidade na qual se encontra inserido realizando trocas recíprocas que propiciam a aquisição do conhecimento historicamente construído. Esta pesquisa teve como foco principal investigar de que de que forma o uso de um sistema de CA que parte de uma perspectiva metodológica sócio-histórica pode promover o desenvolvimento de gestos que propiciam intencionalidade comunicativa em crianças de 03 a 05 anos com autismo. A presente pesquisa cunhou-se como um estudo de caso múltiplo de três sujeitos com autismo, não oralizados, com idades entre 03 e 05 anos de idade. Os resultados a serem apresentados mostram que o sistema SCALA contribuiu como forma constante de mediação integrada ao todo do sujeito. Dessa forma foram surgindo novos gestos, fomos significando cada olhar, apontar, sorrir, morder, etc. Considerando nossos sujeitos como agentes intencionais, deixando-os serem atores nas interações, não somente interagentes passivos, ancorados pelo uso de materiais concretos, que levaram a ligação entre o representacional e o simbólico e, sobretudo nos conduziram a diversos e diferentes momentos de atenção e cenas de atenção conjunta, onde nossos sujeitos participavam de interações triádicas e se incluíam nelas. / Human communication is essential to the occurrence of a social interaction process. It is through it that subjects can express their wishes, desires, needs and establish exchanges that result in teaching-learning processes. And, also, actively participate in society, the community in which they are inserted, conducting reciprocal exchanges that foster the acquisition of historically constructed knowledge. This research main focus was to investigate how the use of a CA system that starts from a sociohistorical methodological perspective can promote the development of gestures that provide communicative intentionality in children 03-05 years old with autism. This research was coined as a multiple case study of three subjects with autism, who do not use oral language, aged between 03 and 05 years of age. The results to be presented show that the SCALA system contributed steadily as integrated mediation into the subject as a whole. Thus new gestures started to arise, we gave meaning to each look, point, laugh, biting, etc. Considering our subjects as intentional agents, leaving them to be actors in interactions, not only passive interacting agents, anchored by the use of concrete materials, which led the connection between the representational and the symbolic and above all led us to several different moments of attention and joint attention scenes where our subjects participated in triadic interactions and included themselves in these interactions.

Inclusive preschool settings often provide benefits for children with special needs. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at risk for isolation from peers and have benefited from a range of social communication interventions. Joint attention is a pivotal skill under researched in natural settings. Research is needed on joint attention within natural settings and with naturally occurring partners such as parents or peers. The proposed study uses an interventionist and peer delivered joint attention intervention in a multiple baseline design across child-peer dyads in inclusive preschool classrooms. Data are collected on increase in response to joint attention skills as well as peer bids to the target child.

A comunicação humana é essencial para que ocorra um processo de interação social. É através dela que os sujeitos podem manifestar suas vontades, desejos, necessidades, estabelecer trocas que resultam em processos de ensino-aprendizagem e participar ativamente da sociedade, comunidade na qual se encontra inserido realizando trocas recíprocas que propiciam a aquisição do conhecimento historicamente construído. Esta pesquisa teve como foco principal investigar de que de que forma o uso de um sistema de CA que parte de uma perspectiva metodológica sócio-histórica pode promover o desenvolvimento de gestos que propiciam intencionalidade comunicativa em crianças de 03 a 05 anos com autismo. A presente pesquisa cunhou-se como um estudo de caso múltiplo de três sujeitos com autismo, não oralizados, com idades entre 03 e 05 anos de idade. Os resultados a serem apresentados mostram que o sistema SCALA contribuiu como forma constante de mediação integrada ao todo do sujeito. Dessa forma foram surgindo novos gestos, fomos significando cada olhar, apontar, sorrir, morder, etc. Considerando nossos sujeitos como agentes intencionais, deixando-os serem atores nas interações, não somente interagentes passivos, ancorados pelo uso de materiais concretos, que levaram a ligação entre o representacional e o simbólico e, sobretudo nos conduziram a diversos e diferentes momentos de atenção e cenas de atenção conjunta, onde nossos sujeitos participavam de interações triádicas e se incluíam nelas. / Human communication is essential to the occurrence of a social interaction process. It is through it that subjects can express their wishes, desires, needs and establish exchanges that result in teaching-learning processes. And, also, actively participate in society, the community in which they are inserted, conducting reciprocal exchanges that foster the acquisition of historically constructed knowledge. This research main focus was to investigate how the use of a CA system that starts from a sociohistorical methodological perspective can promote the development of gestures that provide communicative intentionality in children 03-05 years old with autism. This research was coined as a multiple case study of three subjects with autism, who do not use oral language, aged between 03 and 05 years of age. The results to be presented show that the SCALA system contributed steadily as integrated mediation into the subject as a whole. Thus new gestures started to arise, we gave meaning to each look, point, laugh, biting, etc. Considering our subjects as intentional agents, leaving them to be actors in interactions, not only passive interacting agents, anchored by the use of concrete materials, which led the connection between the representational and the symbolic and above all led us to several different moments of attention and joint attention scenes where our subjects participated in triadic interactions and included themselves in these interactions.