Reciprocal Communication Training Through Music (RCTM) for Autistic Children.

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI) are anevidence-based class of early interventions for improving language and socialcommunication skills in autistic children. However, relatively little is knownabout how individual elements of NDBI support child development. This commentaryfocuses on one common element across NDBI models: the simplification of adultlanguage input. Advances in developmental science focusing on the length andcomplexity of adult spoken utterances suggests that natural, grammaticalutterances facilitate comprehension and expressive language development inautistic and non-autistic children. Yet, NDBI tend to recommend shorter andsimpler adult utterances. We close by describing directions for future researchwhich would inform recommendations around adult language input in NDBI tooptimally support child language and communication development.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skills training on reducing the behavioral problems of children with autism and pseudo-experimental. The statistical population of all autistic children is Mashhad. In this research, a goal-based sampling method is used. 30 children were selected from among children with autism and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people) and control (n = 15). The Shelli & Sorkab Communication Skills Questionnaire (2004) and Rutter's Behavioral Disorder (1964) Then, independent variable, ie social skills training (ten sessions 60 minutes), was performed on the experimental group, while no intervention was performed on the control group. After collecting data, the data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The results showed that social skills training has a positive and significant effect on reducing the behavioral problems of communication skills improvement in autistic children. Conclusion: Social skills training is a suitable method for reducing behavioral problems and improving communication skills in autistic children. These results can be used by psychologists and counselors.

Autistic children have the right to education. Education helps them develop their communication skills. Using a project-based learning model can improve communication skills. Currently, there is a lot of research discussing the use of project-based learning for children with special needs. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the use of project-based learning with augmented reality on the communication skills of autistic children. The method used is a systematic literature review and theoretical bibliometric analysis of research on communication skills of children with autism sourced from Scopus from 2013 to 2022. The research stages are determining i) research questions; ii) inclusion criteria; iii) quality assessment; iv) data collection; and v) bibliometric analysis. The results of this research note that research on the communication skills of autistic children is still a research trend that is of great interest to researchers with an increase in research occurring from 2015 to 2022. Countries in the Americas and Asia contributed the most to research on this research theme. There is a relationship between project requirements (P), communication skills (CS), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This relationship is indicated by the strength of the P→CS link of 2 and the strength of the CS→ASD link of 4. This review shows that the characteristics of project-based learning can help train the level of communication skills of autistic children and will be better if assisted by the use of AR

Background Autistic children often experience challenges with social participation and forming relationships. Previous studies have shown that learning to perform magic effects (i.e., magic tricks) and demonstrating them to others can promote improvements in social behaviors among autistic children. Objective This qualitative study used thematic analysis with a phenomenological approach to explore how autistic children and their parents perceived a virtual magic-arts training (MAT) program. Methods Fifteen autistic children participated in a virtual magic camp conducted through Zoom (Zoom Communications Inc., United States of America). The program consisted of 45-min sessions, held 3 times/week for 3 weeks, during which participants were trained to perform magic effects for others. Following the program, 1-time semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with both the child participants and their parents. Results Three major themes emerged from the participant interviews: (i) increased social motivation, (ii) gained self-confidence in social communication, and (iii) built self-esteem. Participants stated that the ability to demonstrate magic effects for others made them more inclined to initiate and engage in social interactions. Similarly, three themes emerged from the parent interviews regarding their children’s experiences: (i) improved social motivation and social communication, (ii) built children’s self-confidence and self-esteem, and (iii) learned implicitly. Both participants and parents expressed interest in continuing MAT programs. Conclusion This study identified several key features and themes related to improved social skills among autistic children following participation in a virtual magic camp. These findings align with existing literature suggesting that programs incorporating special interests can positively influence social participation in autistic children. This study lays the groundwork for developing a conceptual model to better understand the mechanisms linking MAT and social skills improvement.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show ongoing problems with social communication and interaction, plus limited repeated behavior patterns (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These social skill issues make it hard to them to fit into schools and society. While common treatments like social skills training, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and speech therapy are often used worldwide research suggests that music education could help boost social interaction in ASD children. But in Vietnam, this idea is pretty new, without many thorough reviews or practical how-to guides. Studies show that music education activities lead to better social skills in autistic children. Music helps improve eye contact taking turns, copying others, and starting social interactions. Most studies find that groups using music show much better results than those that do not. But how well music works depends on things like how it is done how long it lasts, if parents are involved, and each child's unique traits. Some big controlled studies have shown mixed results, which means we need more research to figure out the best way to use music. This review backs up the idea that music education could help develop social skills in autistic children. It suggests that teachers and experts should mix music into special education programs to boost social interaction and inclusion. The study also points out current research limits and suggests future research topics stressing the need for Vietnam-specific studies and the creation of special music programs for ASD children.

Autism is characterized by impairment in reciprocal communication and speech, repetitive behaviors, and social communication. The genetic and environmental factors play roles in the pathogenesis of autism. It was recently shown that the genes involved in the folate/homocysteine pathway may be risk factors for autistic children. One of the genes that may be the risk factor for autism is Methionine synthase (MTR). MTR is responsible for the regeneration of methionine from homocysteine. The aim of this study was to analyze the association of MTR A2756G gene polymorphism (rs1805087) and the risk of autism in a population in northern Iran. The prevalence of MTR A2756G polymorphism was determined in 108 children with autism and 130 controls in northern Iran. Genotypes and allele frequencies were determined in patients and controls by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The prevalence of genotype frequencies of AA, AG and GG in autistic children were 57.41%, 22.22% and 20.37%, respectively, while in controls were 61.54%, 32.31% and 6.15%, respectively. There was significant difference between the MTR polymorphism distribution in control and patient groups. The prevalence of allele frequencies of A and G in autistic children were 0.69 and 0.31, respectively and in controls were 0.78 and 0.22, respectively (P=0.03). The MTR G allele conferred a 1.6-fold increased risk to autism relative to the A allele (95% CI=1.06-2.41, P=0.02). The present study suggests that the G allele of MTR A2756G polymorphism is associated with an increased risk of autism.

Social communication, repetitive behaviors and interests, and adaptive behavior in girls with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability were compared to a group of typically developing (TD) girls.Thirty seven girls 7;5-15;2 were included: 18 ASD and 19 TD. Groups were matched on age and IQ. Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-2) were administered.Item level scores within the subdomains of reciprocal social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors and interests were examined on the SCQ and ADOS-2. With unadjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 21 of 36 items on the SCQ. With adjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 17 of the 36 total items. With unadjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 20 of 32 total items on the ADOS-2. With adjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 16 of the 32 total items. Within the ASD group significant negative correlation was observed between ADOS-2 repetitive behaviors and interests and SCQ communication. The ASD group demonstrated borderline to moderately low VABS-2 scores.Girls with ASD may demonstrate relative strengths in social communication on diagnostic measures. Differences in the expression of repetitive behaviors and interests between girls with ASD and girls with TD may not be observed during structured observation but may be reported by parents. Girls with ASD demonstrate weaker socialization skills relative to other adaptive behaviors and indicate a priority for treatment.

Until now, the communication abilities of autistic children are still an obstacle in the interaction process, due to deficiencies in these abilities. Parents, as parties who have a major role in children's development, need to be actively involved in dealing with all developmental problems faced by their children. This research aims to understand the level of communication skills of autistic children and evaluate how the role of parents influences the development of autistic children aged 4-5 years at the Cianjur Family Club Inclusive PAUD. This research applies a qualitative approach by collecting data through observation, interviews and documentation studies conducted on parents of autistic children, autistic children and also school principals and Foundation Trustees at the Cianjur Family Club Inclusive PAUD. The results of the research revealed that the communication skills of autistic children aged 4-5 years at the Cianjur Family Club Inclusive PAUD focused on three main aspects, namely the first is speaking ability, where children experience difficulty in pronouncing words, however, children can already understand the delivery process. message. Second, the listening ability of autistic children is also quite good; Most children can grasp the expressions received, thanks to their fairly extensive vocabulary knowledge and their ability to demonstrate understanding of the messages received. And thirdly, the nonverbal speaking abilities of autistic children show better development than verbal communication. Children often use nonverbal movements as an effective form of communication. Subsequent research revealed that the role of parents is very important in the language development of autistic children aged 4-5 years at the Cianjur Family Club Inclusive PAUD. There are four main roles carried out by parents: caring, educating, nurturing, and providing love. They are aware of the limitations that autistic children have and feel it is very important to carry out these roles.

Parent-child biobehavioral synchrony, or the concordance of behavior and physiological indicators between individuals, is theorized to support children's social development; however, this relationship has yet to be investigated in autistic children. This study examined whether moment-to-moment physiological synchrony-indexed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)-and its interface with global levels of behavioral synchrony was associated with the pragmatic language skills and friendship quality of school-aged autistic children in 40 mother-child dyads. Mother-child dyads participated in a collaborative task, from which RSA synchrony and behavioral synchrony were assessed. Mothers and their autistic children demonstrated negative RSA synchrony, such that when one partner displayed an increase in RSA, the other partner showed a decrease in RSA. The extent of behavioral synchrony between mothers and their children did not moderate the strength of concordance between mother and child RSA. Negative RSA synchrony was associated with better pragmatic language skills in autistic children from mother-child dyads who displayed high levels of behavioral synchrony. These findings highlight the complexity of dyadic synchrony, suggesting that the coordination of mother-child RSA, in conjunction with behavioral synchrony, may aid in the development of social skills in autistic children that extend beyond the immediate caregiver context. However, larger longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this.

Weak theory of mind (ToM) ability is a core deficit in children with autism. A growing body of work has found that there is a close relation between complement syntax and ToM in autistic children. However, researchers have not yet investigated whether other linguistic components may explain the difficulties in ToM reasoning in autistic children. To determine whether verb factuality (i.e., mental and action verbs) is related to ToM ability, as measured by a false belief understanding (FBU) task after controlling the effect of complement syntax for Mandarin-speaking autistic children. Participants were verbal autistic children, aged 4-7 years. Their IQ performance (verbal, performance and total IQ) and the comprehension of complement syntax were evaluated. A total of 38 children scoring over 9 points in complement syntax test and 90 points in the verbal IQ test were selected to complete verb factuality and FBU task. The χ2 tests and correlation analyses were carried out on two relations: (1) ToM ability and understanding of verb factuality; and (2) ToM ability and comprehension of complement syntax. A total of 11 autistic children completed the action verb factuality task, while 14 completed the mental verb factuality task and 13 completed both tasks. Participants performed well on the verb factuality task, and their ToM performance appeared to be related to their linguistic ability, regardless of the type of verb (i.e., action or mental verb). However, complement syntax scores did not significantly predict the success of the FBU task for the autistic children. The results of this study link weaker ToM ability with the understanding of verb factuality among autistic children aged 4-7 and provide new evidence for the view that the development of language facilitates improvement of ToM skills. The findings shed new light on how language affects or determines social interactions. What is already known on the subject ToM ability is crucial for social interaction. It has been claimed that mental verb factuality (e.g., think, had thought) may play a role in the development of ToM reasoning in typically developing children, but whether there is a link between the mastery of verb factuality and ToM skills in autistic children is still unclear. What this study adds to existing knowledge Correlational analysis revealed links between verbal ToM measured by unexpected location task and factuality test of mental verbs as well as action verbs. More importantly, this study confirmed the extra role of verb factuality in explaining ToM ability after excluding the influence of the complement syntax. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This study suggests that the factuality of verbs could serve as a tool for autistic children to infer the mental states of others. Thus, training on this linguistic structure could be taken into consideration when improving the social skills of autistic children.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder is a type of neural development disorder. It is characterized by deficit in social communication, social interaction, and repetitive behavior pattern. It is assumed that maternal role in child education is more dominant than paternal role, because children are closer to their mothers since birth. It is also assumed that the quality of life of autistic children would improve if there is improvement in their social communication and social interaction. This study aimed to examine the maternal role in guiding social communication to autistic children as a determinant of child quality of life.
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\nSubjects and Method: This was a qualitative study conducted in public special school in Tangerang District, West Java, from October to December 2017. Informants for this study included 5 mothers of autistic children and 3 teachers-therapists at the public special school. The constructs under study included maternal role in guiding social communication and social interaction in autistic children. The data were collected by in-depth interview, observation, and document review. The data were analyzed by Miles and Huberman method.
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\nResults: Mothers had an important role in observing various child behaviors, seeking advice from expert, determining child development need, exploring child sensory-dietary-medical need at home. Other maternal roles included admitting children to primary school or special school that was suitable for child potential development and involving children in simple daily activities at home. The maternal role in guiding social communication was considerably good including communication therapy at home using audio visual aids, stimulating oral motoric skill, providing social interaction therapy by story telling, teaching socialization to children by familiarizing them to greet and handshake with others, and letting them to play with other children. The maternal role in improving quality of life was sufficiently good, so that each child was able to develop their communication and interaction skills with variying levels of improvement.
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\nConclusion: Maternal role in guiding social communication in autistic children is sufficiently good although there is a need to improve its implementation in order to gain improved quality of life. It is adviseable for mothers to carry on guiding program at home so as to develop child potentials and to reduce their weak aspects.

Proposed mental immersion in virtual reality avatar provides interaction with autism children to improve their social communication that includes visual object recognition, speaking—speech gestures, and aural—responding to avatar. Autism children need to understand the basic activities for their day-to-day life. Using the 3D modeling tool such as Blender creates an animated 3D models avatar and interact with autism children to improve their social communication. Autism children with above social communication issues will be reduced and interaction of avatar will make the children to connect emotionally and reduce their unusual or repetitive gestures while interact with virtual reality-based avatar in the continuous rehabilitation process. Five children with mild level and two children with medium level of autism are considered for observation and the interaction with avatar improves the social communication of the children with autism. Simple objects the children used in their day to day were modeled (referred from special school curriculum book). Avatar interacts with the children about the objects. While interacting with avatar, children eye contact, gesture, and expressions will be promising compared to the traditional therapy with physical objects. Avatar walks in the virtual environment and does the interaction. Two children with medium autism find difficulty in using head-mount device (HMD). We replace the HMD with leap motion device, so that hand and head-free movement makes them to see and interact with virtual environment. Day-to-day objects they are seeing in the rehabilitation were modeled in realistic way, so they can connect their minds with the objects easily. We have created virtual classroom with avatar for the next level, so that avatar interacts with children such as rhymes and music. It stimulates the autism children mental state to connect to music in the virtual world which enhances their social world communication too.

Autism is a developmental condition that affects motor skill development. There is a lack of comprehensive research exploring the potential benefits of extended reality (XR) technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), for improving motor skills in autistic children. This systematic literature review (SLR) addresses this research gap by investigating XR-based interventions targeting motor skill development in autistic children. The SLR analysed 15 primary studies published between 2012 and 2024, examining the use of VR and AR to improve motor skill development in autistic children. The interventions ranged from one session to 12 weeks, lasting 12 to 45 minutes, and targeted various body movements. XR platforms and devices used included VR headsets, motion capture systems, and exercise bikes. Recurrent neural networks, dynamic difficulty adjustment, and behaviour trees were employed to enhance intervention dynamics and extract valuable insights from collected data. The results suggest that using XR interventions has significant potential to improve physical activity levels and motor skills development among autistic children. However, the research designs varied, with only one study including their intervention framework’s generalisation and maintenance phases. This study offers an encouraging avenue for future research and intervention design in this field.

Autistic children often face challenges in reciprocal communication leading to difficulties with social turn-taking (STT), affecting their social interactions. Prior technical interventions show limitations in personalization and sensory adaptability, while also exhibiting scalability constraints. However, recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) offer the opportunity to develop adapted tools. Therefore, this Ph.D. work aims to design and evaluate a GenAI-driven, gamified tool to support STT in reciprocal communication for verbal autistic children. The Gamified Adaptive Interaction Platform (GAIP) integrates GenAI personalization with gamification. This research will deliver this key contribution: a novel methodology for adaptive STT interventions using multimodal behavioural sensing to support reciprocal communication. GAIP plans to advance autism interventions through scalable, adaptive AI, advancing HCI and autism inclusion.

ABSTRACTChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face substantial challenges in understanding emotions, including difficulty in recognizing emotions through nonverbal cues, interpreting others' affective and mental states, and developing emotional vocabulary. Research suggests that the association between emotion recognition and social functioning is mediated by emotional language and cognitive empathy. However, this relationship remains underexplored in autistic children. Addressing this gap was the primary goal of this study, which comprised 116 autistic children (17 females), aged 7–10 (M = 8.26, SD = 0.76). Participants completed a comprehensive assessment battery, comprising multi‐modal emotion recognition, cognitive empathy, and emotional language tasks. Social functioning was evaluated through naturalistic observations during free play, supplemented by a parent‐reported standardized measure. Path analysis results revealed that after controlling for age, cognitive abilities, and autism severity, the relationship between emotion recognition and social functioning was mediated by cognitive empathy. Additionally, emotional language emerged as a contributing factor, enhancing cognitive empathy and further supporting its role in social functioning. These findings present an indirect path between emotion recognition and social functioning through emotional language and cognitive empathy, highlighting the importance of targeting these components in interventions aimed at promoting social communication and adaptive social skills in autistic children.