Transcript Imitation and the affect it has on Children with Autism

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Imitation is important because it is a
prerequisite skill for observational learning
(Garfinkle and Schwartz 2002)
Research has shown that imitation is vital to a
child’s success in school and social settings
(Ganz)
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Purpose
◦ Investigate the utility of using a package to improve
imitation skills in children with autism
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Method
◦ Four children were selected for the study who failed
to imitated their peers during a classroom
observation
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Procedure
◦ Data collected from individuals in various intervals
for 4 minute sessions
◦ Visual cues were used to judge for imitation
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Results
◦ 3 of the 4 participants showed an increase in
imitation behaviors because of visual cues
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Discussion
◦ Research was used to help teachers find different
ways to help children with autism manage behavior
issues
Jennifer Ganz, Margaret Flores, and B. Campos
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Participants
◦ Three children who were diagnosed as being
autistic
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Method
◦ To investigate the effectiveness of written scripts
and visual cues for children with autism
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Procedure
◦ Three baseline activities, 5 minutes each, for all
three participants with intervention of scripts and
pictures
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Results
◦ Increase in all participants
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Discussion
◦ Written scripts increase peer initiations
◦ Visual cues were used to decrease repetitious
speech that interfered with peer interactions
◦ Prior to study all three participants used repetitive
speech such as echoing movie lines
Jennifer Ganz, Maria Kaylor, Bethany Bourgeois, Kathy
Hadden
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Teachers can use this information to help
manage children in the classroom who may
have autism.
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Can help normally developing children
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Add an interaction between all children
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Visual cues can be used for younger children
not just children with autism
Baron-Cohen, Baldwin and Crowson
(1997)
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SDG-speaker’s direction of gaze
Key strategy that normal developing children
use to find what an adult is talking about
What if a child did not use the SDG? What
would this child assume a “dog” is?
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LDG- listener’s direction of gaze
If we only use the LDG, many times the word will be
linked to the wrong object.
Most Autisitc children show little or no gaze
monitoring, thus they use LDG more often.
Leads to more word mapping errors
Tons of research- show that word connection
errors very common in autistic children
 Hypothesis of this study-”children with autism would use the LDG
rather than the SDG strategy, and as a result
would show a high-rate of word mapping
problems.”
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Two groups
◦ Group 1: 17 autistic children, average age 9
◦ Group 2: 17 mentally disabled children (none with
autism), average age 9
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Pretest (all passed)
Test
Results:
◦ Hypothesis supported
◦ Group 1 (autistic): 5 out of 17 passed- 29%
 12 failed- all chose the child’s toy
◦ Group2 (non-autistic): 12 out of 17 passed-71%
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The autistic children assumed the new word
went with the object they were looking atLDG.
This egocentric behavior is what led to the
word mapping errors.
Supports previous research that children with
autism are relatively blind to the mentalistic
significance of the eyes.
Meadan, Halle, Ostrosky, DeStefano
(2008)
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Communication repair: the ability to persist in
communication and to repeat or modify a
signal when faced with a breakdown in
communication
Example: if child reaches for a toy and the
mother asks, “what?” and then the child
reaches for the toy again and vocalizes
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There have been several studies on repair
strategies used by verbal children with mild
disabilities such as learning disabilities and
mental retardation
Little research has been done on
communication repair with children who have
disabilities and limited expressive language.
Participants:
 Two boys- both had autism and very limited
expressive language. Both previously enrolled
in an early intervention program and received
speech therapy in their home.
 Ray: Two years old when observations began
 Ethan: Two years 20 months old when the
observations began
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The researchers chose to study the children
in their natural environment at home. They
watched both children at least once a week
for several months. They collected informal
conversations with the parents as well as
recorded interactions between mother and
child.
A total of 25 hours was recorded for both
children combined.
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Ray: 96 episodes of
communication repairs
observed during natural
interactions between Ray
and his mother.
During the book activity,
Ray hit most often (67%) to
request. During food
routines, Ray vocalized
(57%) most often to
request. During parachute
activity, Ray led (46%) his
communication partner to
the parachute most often.
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Ethan: Only a limited number or
communication episodes occurred during the
natural observations. Episodes of
communication repair were never observed.
Researchers decided to terminate
observations on Ethan after no
communication repairs were observed during
a 5 month period
Environment had a critical role in the
communication of both boys
Ray: toys and favorite activities were placed out
of reach. To get what he wanted, Ray had to
communicate his needs to an adult. Ray’s
mother was an active part in his play and
communication efforts.
Ethan: his environment allowed him to access
his toys and things with ease. He mainly
played alone. His environment did not require
him to communicate frequently.
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Investigating whether children with
Autism exhibit syntactic abilities
same as developmental age.
3 groups
Autism group
Developmentally delayed group
Typically developed group
Tested with Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale 4th Ed.
Free Play sessions
Pronounced language that was significantly less complex for
developmental age
Shorter MLU
Reached Syntactic abilities atypical developmental pathway, not
simple-complex
Strength was lexical knowledge, richer that peers as they
comprehended and produced just as many.
Likely to participate in conversation less.
Produce utterances that don’t contribute to discourse
May be overrepresented is only measured by lexical abilities as
this in an inadequate marker of language ability.
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Ganz, J. B., Kaylor, M., Bourgeois, B., & Hadden, K. (2008). The
impact of social scripts and visual cues of verbal communication in
three children with autism spectrum disorders. Focos on Autism
and Other Developmental Disabilities, 23, 79-94.
Ganz, J.B., Bourgeois, B.C., Flores, M.M., & Campos, B.A. (2008).
Implementing visually cued imitation training with children with
autism spectrum disorders and developmental delays. Journal of
Positive Behavior Interventions, 10, 56-66.
Meadan, H., James, H., Ostrosky, M., & DeStefano, L. (2008, March).
Communicative behavior in the natural environment: Case studies of
two young children autism and limited expressive language. Focus
on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 23(1), 37-48.