Using pictorial representations as communication means with low-functioning children

Associative learning of pictures and words by low-functioning children with autism

This research investigates whether children with autism learn picture, word and object relations as associative pairs or whether they understand such relations as referential. In Experiment 1, children were taught a new word (e.g. `whisk') repeatedly paired with a novel picture. When given the picture and a previously unseen real whisk and asked to indicate a whisk, children with autism, unlike typically developing peers matched on receptive language, associated the word with the picture rather than the object. Subsequent experiments respectively confirmed that neither a bias for selecting pictures nor perseverative responding accounted for these results. Taken together, these results suggest that children with autism with cognitive difficulties are learning picture—word and picture—object relations via an associative mechanism and have difficulty understanding the symbolic nature of pictures.

A stimulus control procedure to increase requesting with individuals who are severely/profoundly intellectually disabled

Various procedures have been used to establish and increase manual signed and spoken requesting with individuals who are intellectually disabled. A few studies have used the so-called blockable response conditioned establishing operation (BR-CEO) as a stimulus control procedure to increase requesting. A variation on the BR-CEO is the interrupted chain procedure, in which requesting for the activity that had been interrupted is reinforced by continuation of the activity. Rather than interrupting an ongoing activity, six individuals who are severely/profoundly intellectually disabled were studied with respect to the differential effectiveness of presenting them incomplete versus complete referents (i.e. activity and objects) as a consequence of their requesting on their rate of requesting. Data were collected within a reversal design. The results show that five out of six individuals more than doubled their rate of requesting. Incomplete presentation of referents may be a practical procedure to increase requesting.

Memory impairments and communication in relatively able autistic children

Autistic people have specific memory difficulties. The effects of these difficulties on communication in relatively able autistic children and learning impaired controls were assessed in three experiments. The experiments tested the ability to: (1) carry out instructions; (2) ask questions without repetition; and (3) answer questions about past activities. When specific memory skills were required autistic children's communication was impaired relative to controls. When the need to use these skills was eliminated from the tasks the autistic children performed as well as controls. Some practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

The autistic child's appraisal of expressions of emotion: a further study

Autistic and matched non-autistic retarded children were selected for their ability to recognize the correspondence between schematic drawings and videotaped scenes involving people. The subjects of both groups were able to choose schematic drawings of gestures for a person's gestures of emotion enacted on videotape. However, the autistic children were significantly impaired in choosing which of the drawings of gestures should 'go with' videotaped vocalizations and facial expressions characteristic of four emotional states. The results were found to be consistent with results from a previous, related study in which the same subjects had chosen drawn or photographed faces to indicate their judgements of the same videotapes of emotional expression. It is suggested that these findings reflect an important aspect of autistic children's social disability.

The autistic child's appraisal of expressions of emotion

Groups of MA-matched autistic, normal and non-autistic retarded children were tested for their ability to choose drawn and photographed facial expressions of emotion to "go with" a person videotaped in gestures, vocalizations and contexts indicative of four emotional states. Although both autistic and control subjects were adept in choosing drawings of non-personal objects to correspond with videotaped cues, the autistic children were markedly impaired in selecting the appropriate faces for the videotaped expressions and contexts. Within the autistic group, the children's performance in this task of emotion recognition was related to MA. It is suggested that autistic children have difficulty in recognizing how different expressions of particular emotions are associated with each other, and that this might contribute to their failure to understand the emotional states of other people.