Operationalizing Social Communication in Autism and Related Neurodevelopmental Research: a Scoping Review Over 20 Years

"It just depends": Parent, teacher, and expert conceptualization of social communication in young autistic children

LAY ABSTRACT

Improving social communication is often one goal during early autism services. However, researchers do not yet know whether their ideas about which social communication skills should be targeted during services for young autistic children are the same as the goals of autism community members, such as parents, teachers, and expert clinicians. This study used focus groups (meetings of small groups of community members) to ask people from these groups about what aspects of social communication are most important to support in young autistic children. A total of 43 people participated in these focus groups. These groups included parents (three groups; 21 people), teachers (two groups; 8 people), and experts in early social communication and autism (two groups; 14 people). Focus group participants talked about several aspects of social communication that were already familiar to the research team, such as problems with expressive communication, language understanding, and social interaction. However, participants also talked about several parts of social communication that were less familiar to the research team and had usually not been mentioned in previous research. These included (1) considering the value of unusual forms of communication, (2) taking context and setting into account when considering social communication, and (3) how communication and emotion regulation impact one another. The information from these focus groups will be helpful to making sure that researchers and clinicians focus their social communication supports on areas that are most important to parents and teachers.

The importance and challenges of observing social interactions in autistic preschoolers during inclusive educational settings: A scoping review

Background and aims

A growing number of autistic children have access to inclusive education programs as early as kindergarten. However, little is known about how they actually participate in social interactions and develop their communicative skills according to the parameters of this environment. The aim of this article is to review observational studies on this topic and critically analyze their methodological choices by arguing on the aspects of communication skills noted in the observation grids. Disparities in the information collected depending on the method used have implications for understanding and supporting autistic children in an inclusive school environment.

Methods

Observational studies on social interactions of autistic preschoolers within inclusive preschool settings were scoped. The studies were analyzed according to the following parameters: aims of observation, method used for coding, communication partners considered (adults and peers), type of children's social engagement (initiatives and responses), diversity of communicative forms and communication functions, distinction and comparison of interactional contexts related to the activities, and whether changes linked to developmental variables are studied on an interindividual or longitudinal basis.

Results

Seventeen studies using the observation method in inclusive preschool settings were identified. Recordingmethods are mostly based on video recording. The coding grids mainly focus on autistic children while partners' behaviors (adults, peers) are often coded in less detail, thus providing littleinformation on their dynamic role in the interactions. Overall, autistic children were found to initiate interactions much less often than they respond to it. The data generally distinguish thecommunicative forms used by children and indicate a predominance of nonverbal means at preschool level. However, a few studies coded communicative functions, whether they areaddressed to children or produced by them. In addition, very few studies compare interactions across activity contexts. In addition, very few studies compare interactions across activity contexts.Results of some studies showed that children initiated interaction more frequently during free play than during work activity, but results are heterogeneous. Developmental trajectories in socialskills seem to be associated with the severity of autism and language skills, but longitudinal designs are still rare.

Conclusions and implications

Direct and fine-grained observation in the classroom is a key source of information about how communication takes place in preschool-inclusive settings. The data, despite some methodological challenges, offer opportunities for better adjustment based on professional objectives. Our review highlights the importance of offering occasions for initiatives to autistic children and training of neurotypical peers to better interact with autistic children and promote verbal communication. Further observational studies are needed to use more microanalytic measures of the functional quality of social interactions in autistic children, including joint comparisons between partners (adults vs. peers) and across contexts (e.g., play vs. structured development) so that appropriate strategies can be proposed in inclusive preschool settings.

Construct Validity of the Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC) Across Childhood and Adolescence

This study examined the construct validity of the Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF). Participants included 145 parents of children with autism (2-19 years). The degree of convergent and discriminant validity between parent reported ACSF and subscales from Social Responsiveness Scale 2nd edition and Behavior Assessment System for Children, 3rd Edition were examined against a priori hypotheses. We examined construct validity in the entire sample as well as in specific age cohorts. Our findings suggest that ACSF can provide a valid classification system of social communication ability in children with autism 2-19 years of age, and its two subscales may be used to examine different aspects of social communication ability.