Initiation of Communication in Preschool Children with Autism: Temporal Development and Contextual Inconsistencies Restricted; Files Only
Liu, Shiyin (Spring 2022)
Published
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and restricted or repetitive interests or behaviors (CDC, 2021). Some children with ASD begin to show symptoms at 12 months, and a diagnosis can be reliably made at 18-24 months, when the social communication profiles of a child with ASD becomes distinctly different from their neurotypical peers (Wetherby et al., 2007). Early/preschool inclusive classrooms have been shown to promote development of social communicative skills (Stahmer & Ingersoll, 2004). The Marcus Autism Center hosts an inclusive Preschool with three classrooms (2/3/4 year old), and tracks student development using active engagement measures. One of the variables of active engagement, initiation of communication (IC) measures purposeful, directed acts of communication in children with ASD. The present study incorporates IC data from an eligibility observation (EO) and five classroom recordings for 19 children to study the effects of contexts, time, as well as demographic and developmental data, on the development of communication within the Preschool. We hypothesized that the sampled children would demonstrate within-individual temporal and contextual consistency in IC, and that their developmental baseline data (gathered from clinicians-administered ADOS and parent-reported CDIs) and demographic data would lead to between-groups differences in classroom IC. Our analyses yielded mixed result overall: for the sampled children, time spent at the Preschool was significantly correlated with classroom IC (F = 7.13, p = .009). Moreover, the overall trajectory of classroom IC followed a positive trend line (slope = 0.84), suggesting overall improvement in communication rates. On the other hand, IC at EO was not significantly correlated with IC across the five classroom dates. The null result should inspire further examination of how context/environment affects social communication within an individual. In addition, analyses of demographic and developmental data provided mixed results regarding their relations with IC at EO and in class. Certain developmental variables, such as calibrated ADOS score and number of words understood in CDIs, were correlated with higher IC, whereas other variables in developmental measures did not show statistically significant correlations. Interaction effects between race and sex, as well as collection year and class level, were also found to be significant. An important consideration for this study is the constraint on sample size given the limited number of children within the Preschool.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..………1
Method………..……………………………………………………………………………..…….8
Results………..……………………………………………………………………………..……15
Discussion………..………………………………………………………………………………17
Tables and Figures………..………………………………………………….………………...23
References………..………………………………………………………………………………31
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