Assessing Gestures in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Purpose To determine whether scoring of the gestures point, give, and show were correlated across measurement tools used to assess gesture production in children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Method Seventy-eight children with an ASD between the ages of 23 to 37 months participated. Correlational analyses were conducted to determine whether performance of three key gestures related to joint attention and behavior regulation (point, give, show) were correlated across three different measurement tools: the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, the Early Social Communication Scale, and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory: Words and Gestures. To establish whether different measures were related at different points in development, children were subdivided into two groups based on their expressive language levels. Results The scoring of gesture performance was not entirely consistent across assessment methods. The score that a child received appeared to be influenced by theoretical perspective, gesture definition, and assessment methodology, as well as developmental level. Conclusion When assessing the gestures of children with ASD clinicians should determine what aspects of gesture they are interested in profiling, gather data from multiple sources, and consider performance in light of the measurement tool.

Reviews of Social Embodiment for Design of Non-Player Characters in Virtual Reality-Based Social Skill Training for Autistic Children

“…In response to this need, it is evident that special training to produce gestures by autistic children themselves is beneficial in social communication skill development [41]. Similarly, the study by Ellawadi and Weismer [42] reports evidence that gestures by autistic children are correlated with their behavior regulation and joint attention.…”

“…In accordance with this assumption, the role of NPCs in social skill training needs to facilitate avatar body movements that can display autistic children's emotional reactions in different social settings. Technically, for instance, several interventions with body-gesture recognition devices (e.g., Microsoft Kinect) [42,45] have been used for understanding autistic children. Schuller, Marchi, Baron-Cohen, O'Reilly, Robinson, Davies, Golan, Friedenson, Tal and Newman [45] showed a body-tracking based social skill intervention that enabled autistic children to replicate certain gestures in the training.…”

Forms and functions of communication in a population of students with autism spectrum disorder

“…Studije u kojima se navodi postojanje izraženih deficita u korišćenju gestova pokazivanja prstom ili rukom, davanja ili pokazivanja onoga što se nalazi u ruci uglavnom su rađena na deci predškolskog uzrasta (npr. Ellawadi & Weismer, 2014;Töret & Acarlar, 2011). Uprkos uočenim deficitima, u nekim od ovih istraživanja ukazuje se na spontani napredak u gestovnoj komunikaciji u predškolskom periodu (Clements & Chawarska, 2010) ili na napredak koji predstavlja i rezultat tretmana (Buffington et al, 1998).…”

“…Uprkos tome što ograničenja u korišćenju gestova mogu perzistirati tokom čitavog života osoba sa PSA, uvidom u dostupnu literaturu stiče se utisak da se ovoj problematici posvećuje pažnja prvenstveno u ranom detinjstvu, kada se očekuje javljanje brojnih tipova gestova i komunikacionih funkcija (npr. Buffington, Krantz, McClannahan, & Poulson, 1998;Camaioni, Perucchini, Muratori, & Milone, 1997;Clements & Chawarska, 2010;Ellawadi & Weismer, 2014;Ingersoll & Lalonde, 2010;Ingersoll, Lewis, & Kroman, 2007;Jones & Carr, 2004;Töret & Acarlar, 2011;Watson, Crais, Baranek, Dykstra, & Wilson, 2013). S druge strane, manji broj autora ispitivao je korišćenje gestova kod dece sa PSA tokom školskog perioda (npr.…”

The attitudes of typically developing adolescents towards their sibling with autism spectrum disorder

“…These difficulties impact the way that individuals with ASD develop, understand and maintain social relationships with others. Characteristics of ASD that make social interaction difficult include the lack of joint attention and turn-taking (Prelock & Nelson, 2012 ), limited use of gesture (Ellawadi & Ellis Weismer, 2014 ) and limited age-appropriate spoken language (Ellis Weismer, Lord & Esler, 2010 ). The early social attention difficulties associated with ASD often lead to cascading effects on children’s learning and social relationships (Adamson, Romski & Barton-Hulsey, 2014 ).…”