Weaving participation, interaction, and technology across recreational experiences: perspectives from volunteers, caregivers, and people with complex communication needs.

Recreational and leisure activities offer many meaningful and motivating opportunities for communication and improving quality-of-life. Volunteers in recreation activities have important roles as participation and communication facilitators, while also creating opportunities for learning and social interaction. The aim of this study was to implement a novel photo and video intervention called the CAPTURE & Share Program, and to evaluate its impact on communication opportunities and participation. For the study, five volunteers were assigned to five individuals with complex communication needs. Each dyad took photos and videos during a series of three kayaking lessons. After each lesson, volunteers participated in feedback sessions, while caregivers, support staff, and participants with complex communication needs shared their perspectives during pre- and post-lesson interviews. A thematic analysis, based on the data from the volunteer feedback sessions, revealed five primary themes: Program Components, Modifications, Barriers, Supports, and Benefits. Findings revealed that volunteers supported the individuals with complex communication needs who participated in the study to collect photos and videos as they learned how to use cameras and communicate their preferences for capture. Furthermore, the photos and videos that were collected were shared with family and friends, which encouraged more frequent social interactions and opportunities for communication. Findings suggest that recreational activities were perceived to provide an appropriate infrastructure for photo and video capture and to support opportunities for communication.

Identification and drawing of early concepts in children with autism spectrum disorder and children without disability.

This comparative study is a replication and extension of previous work related to children's drawings of early concepts. In all, 15 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 19 children without disability took part in the study, and were video recorded as they drew 10 early emerging concepts such as "eat" and "more." In a second task, the participants were asked to label Picture Communication Symbols conventionally used in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. Descriptive, correlational, and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results were consistent with previous research for both groups. Across the 10 features coded, participants in both groups drew entire scenes and were more likely to draw complete representations of people. Identification of PCS was less than 25% for both groups. After a brief time delay, the participants were able to remember the names of their drawings; however, performance on this recall task was positively related to their age. The language scores of the participants without disability were associated with their use of isolated parts in drawings. Trends in the data suggest potential avenues for follow up with larger studies examining use of self, others, and entire scenes in children with ASD. Implications for therapy and future directions pertaining to symbolic understanding in children with ASD are discussed.

"You Get More Than You Give": Experiences of Community Partners in Facilitating Active Recreation with Individuals who have Complex Communication Needs.

Recreation is an essential part of life that provides enriching experiences that may define one's life course similar to careers or other interests. An understanding of the role of volunteers in active community-based recreational programs can help to generate ways to enhance participation and contribute to additional communication opportunities with people who have complex communication needs. Nine volunteers from two adaptive ski programs and one therapeutic horseback-riding program in the Northeast region of the United States participated in semi-structured interviews. Audio-recordings were transcribed and analyzed and resulted in five thematic areas: (a) benefits, (b) why individuals volunteer, (c) barriers, (d) successful program supports, and (e) who are the riders and skiers using AAC. The findings provided insight to support the notion that active community-based recreational activities foster an environment for communication, meaningful engagement, and social relationships between volunteers and people with complex communication needs.

Increasing reciprocal social interactions using collaborative art activities: An intervention for children with complex communication needs and their peers.

Purpose: Children with complex communication needs who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies to communicate have difficulty participating in interactions with their peers. Integrating a collaborative learning framework with art activities may facilitate social interactions between children with complex communication needs and their peers.Method: A single-subject withdrawal design was utilised to examine the impact of collaborative art activities on reciprocal social interactions between 2 dyads of participants with complex communication needs and their same-age peers. Additional dependent variables included the roles of participants with complex communication needs in interactions (initiator or responder), AAC modalities (unaided, aided, natural speech), and engagement.Result:Tau-U calculations for Dyad 1 demonstrated 64% improvement from baseline, indicating moderate effects with the collaborative art activity (Intervention One) and 100% improvement, indicating strong effects following the activity enhanced with photography (Intervention Two). Dyad 2 demonstrated 100% improvement from baseline following Intervention One and 96% improvement following Intervention Two, indicating strong effects.Conclusion: Both collaborative art activities demonstrated potential for facilitating social interactions for children with complex communication needs and their peers.

Effect of foster care on young children's language learning.

This report examines 174 young children's language outcomes in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, the first randomized trial of foster placement after institutional care. Age of foster placement was highly correlated with language outcomes. Placement by 15 months led to similar expressive and receptive language test scores as typical age peers at 30 and 42 months. Placement from 15 to 24 months also led to dramatic language improvement. In contrast, children placed after 24 months had the same severe language delays as children in institutional care. Language samples at 42 months confirmed that placement after 24 months led to lower expressive skill.

Situational and psychosocial factors mediating coordinated joint attention with augmentative and alternative communication systems with beginning communicators without disabilities.

This study examined how infants' age, joint attention (JA) skills, caregiver ratings of language and temperament, and caregiver JA style related to JA in a structured literacy task with an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system. Sixteen infants (mean = 10.6 months) without disabilities participated in two storybook reading interactions with an experimenter in two conditions where the AAC system was either aligned or divided from the experimenter's eye gaze. Individual differences in JA skills, caregiver JA style, and temperament were associated with coordinated JA across both conditions. The findings suggest it is important to examine both extrinsic and intrinsic factors, which may not only reduce attention demands but also mediate the success of JA interactions with AAC systems.

The effect of high-tech AAC system position on the joint attention of infants without disabilities.

Joint attention is critical for language development in children. Children with complex communication needs have additional challenges in managing their joint attention, and there is minimal information on how to reduce these demands. Sixteen infants without disabilities and their caregivers participated in a within-subjects design with two storybook reading interactions. In reading, the researcher either held a high-tech AAC system directly in front of herself (aligned with eye-gaze) or to the side (divided from eye-gaze). The frequency and duration of coordinated and passive joint attention episodes were analyzed. The aligned condition resulted in significantly greater frequency and duration of coordinated joint attention than passive joint attention in episodes involving the AAC system. Age was significantly related to frequency and duration of joint attention only in the aligned condition. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Sibling Relationships: Exploring Implications for Intervention Using a Family Systems Framework.

Purpose There is currently a very limited scope of research in the field of speech-language pathology on sibling involvement in the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Principles of family systems theory (FST) recognize the interrelatedness and dynamic nature of the family unit, making it a relevant and useful guiding framework for future research and practice on sibling involvement in intervention. Method In this article, core principles of FST are reviewed, followed by the state of research related to sibling relationships in ASD, and roles of typically developing siblings and siblings with ASD in intervention programs. Implications for adopting an FST framework as well as considerations and future directions in this area of research and clinical practice are discussed. Results According to the principles of FST on the inclusion of siblings in treatment, there are several considerations to be made at the level of the child with ASD, the sibling(s), and the family unit. Factors such as developmental level, communication status, and areas of strength, challenge, and interest are key features of the children and family that will need to be addressed in order to promote positive sibling involvement and family functioning. Conclusions The development of family-centered sibling intervention programs for individuals with ASD is an area of research that warrants further exploration. With the guidance of the FST framework, researchers and clinicians can work to develop innovative interventions that consider the unique characteristics of each family to optimize outcomes at the levels of each individual, the sibling relationship, and the family as a unit.

Language and theory of mind in preschool children with specific language impairment.

UNLABELLED: Language plays a critical role in the development of theory of mind (ToM). There is limited research, however, examining the role of specific components of language in ToM development for typical and clinical populations. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relative contributions of general grammar, grammatical tense markers, syntactic complementation, and receptive vocabulary on understanding standard ToM tasks in preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI). Thirty-four children with language disorders, ages 42-65 months, were administered a series of language and ToM measures. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the relative contributions of language subcomponents to ToM task performance. The results indicated that general grammatical development and vocabulary contributed uniquely to ToM reasoning. Sentential complementation abilities did not make an independent contribution. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings for different accounts of the role of language in ToM reasoning will be discussed. LEARNING OUTCOMES: Readers of the current study will be able to: (1) understand the relationship between language and ToM development in both typical and clinical populations; (2) understand the different ways in which various language components are related to false belief reasoning; and (3) consider the implications for intervening with children with language disorders.

Three is not always a crowd: contexts of joint attention and language.

This study examined 32 children's (M age = 1;8 years) engagement in joint attention (JA) and the relation between JA and vocabulary size across mother-child (MC) and mother-child-sibling (MCS) contexts. In the MCS context, mothers engaged in JA more with one child than both children; they engaged in less JA with target child than they did in the MC context. JA style was generally unrelated across the contexts. Coordinated JA and children's vocabulary were significantly related only for the MCS context. Findings suggest the number of social partners influences JA dynamics and multi-child contexts can be positive language learning environments.