Restricted object use in young children with autism

Turn taking is a form of preverbal, dyadic, reciprocal communication that may support key areas of development, such as language and joint attention, and may serve different functions depending on each communicative partner’s intent. As such, it has been incorporated in interventions targeting various outcomes in young children with autism. However, there is inconsistency in how researchers define turn taking and explorations on how turn taking is defined across these interventions have not yet been reported in the current literature. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to investigate how turn taking is operationally defined based on communicative intent in the current literature on interventions for young children with autism and to explore additional intervention content to provide fuller context to how turn taking has been promoted. A search was conducted across databases to identify intervention studies for young children with autism that incorporated an embedded turn-taking component. Peer-reviewed articles were then coded based on turn-taking communicative intent, and additional intervention content was categorized. Findings across 14 studies indicate variability among turn-taking definitions both in communicative function and form. The results also reveal that turn taking has been promoted through different intervention approaches that incorporate diverse agents, settings, and methodology. Researchers and practitioners should consider specificity and clarity when defining turn taking to most optimally meet the developmental needs of young children with autism in future interventions.

Recent data suggest that a disturbance in the development of joint attention skills is a specific characteristic of young autistic children. This observation may have both theoretical and clinical significance. However, many pertinent issues remain to be addressed with regard to the parameters of joint attention disturbance in children with autism. This study attempted to address several of these issues. The study examines the effects of mental age and IQ on the joint attention skills of children with autism, mental retardation, and normal development. The study also examined the relation of joint attention behaviors to the parent's report of symptoms presented by children with autism. The results suggested that, differences in IQ and mental age may be related to differences in the type of joint attention skill deficits displayed by children with autism. The results also suggested that joint attention disturbance is associated with a circumscribed, but social cluster of symptoms observed among young autistic children by their parents. The implications of these findings for developmental models of autism are discussed.

The emergence of nonverbal joint attention and requesting skills in young children with autism

Joint attention predicts later language in Down syndrome (DS) and autism. The co-occurrence of autism in children with DS is 6%-19%, which is higher than in the general population. However, little is known about how co-occurring autism in DS impacts the development of joint attention. This study compared mother-child and father-child interactions in families of children with DS. Our purpose was to investigate differences in caregiver joint-attention bids and whether caregiver and child joint attention were associated with autistic traits and receptive language in children with DS. Fifteen children with DS (Mage = 39.67 months) and their biological caregivers participated in the current study. We collected mother-child and father-child interactions in participant's homes. Using Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, we examined if there were differences in mothers' and fathers' joint attention bids and if children responded differently to their bids. We used Spearman correlations to examine the associations between child autistic traits, receptive language, and caregiver and child joint attention. We found that mothers initiated more joint-attention bids than fathers but did not find differences in child responsiveness or initiations based on communication partner. Mothers used more bids when children had more autistic traits. Child autistic traits were negatively correlated with child responsiveness to father joint-attention bids. Children with more autistic traits produced fewer joint-attention bids with both caregivers. Findings suggest mothers and fathers may use differing approaches to support their child's language development. Regardless of communication partner, children with more autistic traits engaged in fewer instances of joint attention.

The successful navigation of social interactions depends on a range of cognitive faculties—including the ability to achieve joint attention with others to share information and experiences. We investigated the influence that intention monitoring processes have on gaze-following response times during joint attention. We employed a virtual reality task in which 16 healthy adults engaged in a collaborative game with a virtual partner to locate a target in a visual array. In the Search task, the virtual partner was programmed to engage in non-communicative gaze shifts in search of the target, establish eye contact, and then display a communicative gaze shift to guide the participant to the target. In the NoSearch task, the virtual partner simply established eye contact and then made a single communicative gaze shift towards the target (i.e., there were no non-communicative gaze shifts in search of the target). Thus, only the Search task required participants to monitor their partner’s communicative intent before responding to joint attention bids. We found that gaze following was significantly slower in the Search task than the NoSearch task. However, the same effect on response times was not observed when participants completed non-social control versions of the Search and NoSearch tasks, in which the avatar’s gaze was replaced by arrow cues. These data demonstrate that the intention monitoring processes involved in differentiating communicative and non-communicative gaze shifts during the Search task had a measurable influence on subsequent joint attention behaviour. The empirical and methodological implications of these findings for the fields of autism and social neuroscience will be discussed.

The successful navigation of social interactions depends on a range of cognitive faculties – including the ability to achieve joint attention with others to share information and experiences. We investigated the influence that intention monitoring processes have on gaze-following response times during joint attention. We employed a virtual reality task in which 16 healthy adults engaged in a collaborative game with a virtual partner to locate a target in a visual array. In the Search task, the virtual partner was programmed to engage in non-communicative gaze shifts in search of the target, establish eye contact, and then display a communicative gaze shift to guide the participant to the target. In the NoSearch task, the virtual partner simply established eye contact and then made a single communicative gaze shift towards the target (i.e., there were no non-communicative gaze shifts in search of the target). Thus, only the Search task required participants to monitor their partner’s communicative intent before responding to joint attention bids. We found that gaze following was significantly slower in the Search task than the NoSearch task. However, the same effect on response times was not observed when participants completed non-social control versions of the Search and NoSearch tasks, in which the avatar’s gaze was replaced by arrow cues. These data demonstrate that the intention monitoring processes involved in differentiating communicative and non-communicative gaze shifts during the Search task had a measureable influence on subsequent joint attention behaviour. The empirical and methodological implications of these findings for the fields of autism and social neuroscience will be discussed.

Joint attention in Down syndrome: A meta-analysis

Young children with autism have deficits in initiating and responding to joint attention bids. This study was designed to examine a parent-implemented intervention targeting joint attention responding in children with autism. Parents were trained to increase their joint attention bids using behavior analytic techniques to facilitate appropriate responding. Parents effectively employed joint attention intervention techniques. As parent joint attention bids increased, children's responses increased. Children's joint attention initiations also increased, even though they were not direct targets of intervention. Findings suggest that parent behaviors during and after intervention impact generalization and maintenance of behavior changes. Implications for practice and future investigations are discussed.

This study was designed to evaluate the nature of early vocal behaviors in young children with autism. Recent methodological and conceptual advances in the study of infant preverbal vocalizations were used to provide a detailed examination of the vocal behavior of young preverbal children with autism and comparison children with developmental delays. Results revealed that children with autism did not have difficulty with the expression of well-formed syllables (i.e., canonical babbling). However, children with autism did display significant impairments in vocal quality (i.e., atypical phonation). Specifically, autistic children produced a greater proportion of syllables with atypical phonation than did comparison children. Consistent with prior reports, the children with autism also displayed a deficit in joint attention behaviors. Furthermore, the atypicalities in the vocal behavior of children with autism appeared to be independent of individual differences in joint attention skill, suggesting that a multiple process model may be needed to describe early social-communication impairments in children with autism. Data are discussed in terms of their implications for future theoretical and applied research, including efforts to enhance the specificity of early diagnostic procedures.

Classification of steady‐state vowel sounds by formant frequency clustering is well documented in the literature [G. E. Petersen and H. L. Barney, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 175–184 (1952)]. A more efficient and equally effective scheme for classifying steady‐state vowels has been developed using partial correlation (PARCOR) coefficients that arise as intermediate parameters in a least squares adaptive lattice inverse filter. A sixth‐order autoregressive time series was synthesized from three formant/bandwidth pairs for each vowel utterance of the Petersen and Barney data. The PARCOR coefficients of the inverse filtered processes exhibited the same graphical clustering behavior as the formant frequency data, and numerical distance measures showed the two sets of parameters to be equivalent. Because the PARCOR coefficients are used directly to classify vowels and because a pth order lattice filter simultaneously generates PARCOR coefficients for all lesser order filters, PARCOR coefficients provide an efficient, minimal parametrization. These results motivate the study of this technique for processing and classifying more complex and time‐varying speech signals. [Work supported by Naval Sea Systems Command.]

The developmental pathways leading to pattern recognition, joint attention, language and cognition

For these two children, obtaining developmental information from various sources, including precursor skills to the development of oral language, provided a more complete picture of each child than conventional clinician-elicited language assessments alone.

Comprehension of relevance implicatures by pre-schoolers: The case of adjectives

Language profiles may predict whether children with slower language development will catch up to their peers by overcoming this transient phenomenon or will be at risk for persistent language disorders. The research of the last decade has focused on this topic. Some researchers have emphasized the significance of developing communicative intentions, which provide a potential predictor of later language competence. In Turkey, children with slower language development may not be diagnosed partly because of the lack of sufficient standardized assessment/evaluation tools, educational and therapeutic media, and qualified speech-language therapists. In devising appropriate evaluation instruments, it is necessary to examine cross-linguistic variation in early language acquisition. The purpose of this study therefore is to observe, describe and assess early communicative behaviours of 15-36 months old Turkish-speaking children by using a functional communicative approach. The research was designed within a qualitative-descriptive paradigm, involving qualitative data collection, observation and data analysis procedures. A total of 16 children, eight typically developing and eight language delayed, served as subjects. The classification system used in this study for coding children's communicative intentions was mostly based upon a system used by Dore (1977). Each variable was referred to as one of three intentional categories: regulating behaviours (request for object, request for action and protest), social interaction (direct attention, greeting and acknowledgement) and joint attention (comment/statement, asking for information and responding). A non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test was carried out to verify the descriptive measures in comparing the delayed and normal group performance. As expected, the mode of expressing communicative intentions varied as a function of age for both groups. Children with normal language development were observed to express intentions within the category of joint attention more frequently whereas the children with delayed language expressed intentions related to the variables of regulating behaviours and social interaction.

Research background: Every real estate may be described with a multitude of attributes. In the process of real estate appraisal only those properties are taken into account that significantly affect its value. Mass appraisal involves a simultaneous valuation of many similar real properties, carried out in the same manner and at the same time. The algorithm applied to mass appraisal ought to ensure a uniform approach to the valuation of all real estate of the same type in an objective fashion. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to define the weights of attributes in the process of real estate mass appraisal on the basis of relationships between unit property value and the values of attributes. Research methodology: The weights were defined on the grounds of partial correlation coefficients for the qualitative properties (Spearman rank correlation coefficient and τB Kendall correlation coefficient). Results: The signs of certain correlation coefficients were discordant with the actual direction of the relations between the analysed properties. The problem was avoided by employing partial correlation coefficients. On the basis of the calculated partial correlation coefficients the weights of individual attributes were calculated. Of all analysed coefficients the partial τB Kendall correlation coefficient is methodologically the most suitable one. Novelty: The use of partial correlation coefficients for determining attribute weights is an innovative approach and is applied in the article.