A granular perspective on inclusion: Objectively measured interactions of preschoolers with and without autism

Fasano, Regina M.; Perry, Lynn K.; Zhang, Yi; Vitale, Laura; Wang, Jue; Ci, Song; Messinger, Daniel S.

doi:10.1002/aur.2526

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…Speech‐like vocalizations involved pre‐linguistic or linguistic phonemic production (e.g., cooing, babbling, full words). LENA has been used to analyze the vocalizations of both TD children and children with developmental disabilities such as ASD (Fasano et al, 2021; Gilkerson & Richards, 2009; Warlaumont et al, 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Speech-like vocalizations involved pre-linguistic or linguistic phonemic production (e.g., cooing, babbling, full words). LENA has been used to analyze the vocalizations of both TD children and children with developmental disabilities such as ASD (Fasano et al, 2021;Warlaumont et al, 2010). For LENA-identified adult vocalizations, expert coders agreed that the vocalizations were produced by adults in 81.1% of cases.…”

Section: Speaker Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children

et al. 2022

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Assessment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relies on expert clinician observation and judgment, but objective measurement tools have the potential to provide additional information on ASD symptom severity. Diagnostic evaluations for ASD typically include the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS‐2), a semi‐structured assessment composed of a series of social presses. The current study examined associations between concurrent objective features of child vocalizations during the ADOS‐2 and examiner‐rated autism symptom severity. The sample included 66 children (49 male; M = 40 months, SD = 10.58) evaluated in a university‐based clinic, 61 of whom received an ASD diagnosis. Research reliable administration of the ADOS‐2 provided social affect (SA) and restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) calibrated severity scores (CSS). Audio was recorded from examiner‐worn eyeglasses during the ADOS‐2 and child and adult speech were differentiated with LENA SP Hub. PRAAT was used to ascertain acoustic features of the audio signal, specifically the mean fundamental vocal frequency (F0) of LENA‐identified child speech‐like vocalizations (those with phonemic content), child cry vocalizations, and adult speech. Sphinx‐4 was employed to estimate child and adult phonological features indexed by the average consonant and vowel count per vocalization. More than a quarter of the variance in ADOS‐2 RRB CSS was predicted by the combination of child phoneme count per vocalization and child vocalization F0. Findings indicate that both acoustic and phonological features of child vocalizations are associated with expert clinician ratings of autism symptom severity. Lay Summary Determination of the severity of autism spectrum disorder is based in part on expert (but subjective) clinician observations during the ADOS‐2. Two characteristics of child vocalizations—a smaller number of speech‐like sounds per vocalization and higher pitched vocalizations (including cries)—were associated with greater autism symptom severity. The results suggest that objectively ascertained characteristics of children's vocalizations capture variance in children's restricted and repetitive behaviors that are reflected in clinician severity indices.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Speaker Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children

et al. 2022

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“…Previous studies have documented high reliability between human coders' and LENA's classification of child and adult vocalizations occurring in preschool classrooms (Fasano et al, 2021;Mitsven et al, 2021). However, the reliability of LENA's classification of classroom vocalizations has not been assessed while children and teachers are wearing face-masks.…”

Section: Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Classroom language during COVID-19: Associations between mask-wearing and objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations

et al. 2022

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing in classrooms has become commonplace. However, there are little data on the effect of face-masks on children’s language input and production in educational contexts, like preschool classrooms which over half of United States children attend. Leveraging repeated objective measurements, we longitudinally examined child and teacher speech-related vocalizations in two cohorts of 3.5–4.5-year-old children enrolled in the same oral language classroom that included children with and without hearing loss. Cohort 1 was observed before COVID-19 (no face-masks, N = 20) and Cohort 2 was observed during COVID-19 (with face-masks; N = 15). Vocalization data were collected using child-worn audio recorders over 12 observations spanning two successive school years, yielding 9.09 mean hours of audio recording per child. During COVID-19 teachers produced a higher number of words per minute than teachers observed prior to COVID-19. However, teacher vocalizations during COVID-19 contained fewer unique phonemes than teacher vocalizations prior to COVID-19. Children observed during COVID-19 did not exhibit deficits in the duration, rate, or phonemic diversity of their vocalizations compared to children observed prior to COVID-19. Children observed during COVID-19 produced vocalizations that were longer in duration than vocalizations of children observed prior to COVID-19. During COVID-19 (but not before), children who were exposed to a higher number of words per minute from teachers produced more speech-related vocalizations per minute themselves. Overall, children with hearing loss were exposed to teacher vocalizations that were longer in duration, more teacher words per minute, and more phonemically diverse teacher speech than children with typical hearing. In terms of production, children with hearing loss produced vocalizations that were longer in duration than the vocalizations of children with typical hearing. Among children observed during COVID-19, children with hearing loss exhibited a higher vocalization rate than children with typical hearing. These results suggest that children’s language production is largely unaffected by mask use in the classroom and that children can benefit from the language they are exposed to despite teacher mask-wearing.

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“…Fasano et al, for example, used automated analyses of audio recordings in a subset and children examined here. Children tended to speak to other children in the same disability category (TD children and children with ASD and DD) 17 . But Fasano et al did not examine the behavioral primitives of social approach and social contact that are the bases of the indices of homophily examined in the current larger sample.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Objective quantification of homophily in children with and without disabilities in naturalistic contexts

Banarjee

Tao

Fasano

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Homophily, the tendency for individuals to preferentially interact with others similar to themselves is typically documented via self-report and, for children, adult report. Few studies have investigated homophily directly using objective measures of social movement. We quantified homophily in children with developmental disabilities (DD) and typical development (TD) using objective measures of position/orientation in preschool inclusion classrooms, designed to promote interaction between these groups of children. Objective measurements were collected using ultra-wideband radio-frequency tracking to determine social approach and social contact, measures of social movement and interaction. Observations of 77 preschoolers (47 with DD, and 30 TD) were conducted in eight inclusion classrooms on a total of 26 days. We compared DD and TD groups with respect to how children approached and shared time in social contact with peers using mixed-effects models. Children in concordant dyads (DD-DD and TD-TD) both moved toward each other at higher velocities and spent greater time in social contact than discordant dyads (DD-TD), evidencing homophily. DD-DD dyads spent less time in social contact than TD-TD dyads but were comparable to TD-TD dyads in their social approach velocities. Children’s preference for similar peers appears to be a pervasive feature of their naturalistic interactions.

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A granular perspective on inclusion: Objectively measured interactions of preschoolers with and without autism

Cited by 20 publications

References 44 publications

Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children

Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children

Classroom language during COVID-19: Associations between mask-wearing and objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations

Objective quantification of homophily in children with and without disabilities in naturalistic contexts

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