Communication during the transition to first words: A look at the autistic and normal dyadic process.
Item
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Title
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Communication during the transition to first words: A look at the autistic and normal dyadic process.
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Identifier
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AAI9020801
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identifier
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9020801
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Creator
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Roberts, Elise Rosenberg.
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Contributor
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Adviser: John Dore
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Health Sciences, Speech Pathology
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Abstract
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The purposes of this longitudinal research were: (1) to provide a methodological system for looking at routine interactions of autistic and normal groups of children with adults during the transitional period to first words and (2) to propose a theoretical model for understanding how the developmental progress of autistic and normal communication differ. This study treated the dyad as a unit and interactions were described in terms of participant's adaptations to and the specific consequences of the other's behaviors.;Two groups of dyads participated in this study. An autistic group consisted of four dyads of autistic children with their teachers. All of these children were rated at the severe end of autism on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale. A second group of four dyads consisted of normal infants and their mothers.;The model prescribed that the only child behaviors selected for analysis were those responded to by the adult. These behaviors occurred within a communicative loop, designated a Co-Adaptive Behavioral Sequence, which was described in terms of child initiatory, adult response, and child attending behaviors. The child's attending to the adult's response was identified as the critical moment for the child's potential benefit from participating in interactions.;The developmental progress of how communicative behaviors develop to a conventional symbol and become coordinated with communicative action was examined. It was proposed that communicative behaviors in synchrony with the other are necessary for this progress. Findings indicated that the autistic and normal groups evidenced important differences despite similar means of child initiating behaviors. Most importantly, only the autistic child's communicative loops broke down and behaviors did not move in synchrony. These breakdowns were in the form of a failure to attend to the adult's response and signalled the autistic child's difficulty in coordinating monitoring systems. The consequences of these breakdowns were observed in the autistic child's adaptive behaviors and in later loops, both of which reflected limited organization and use of the adult's response. Findings of interactional breakdowns, creating asynchrony in interaction, were proposed to represent a failure of adaptation. This asynchrony mitigates developmental progress in the autistic child's communication.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
