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La Valle C, Shen L, Shih W, Kasari C, Shire S, Lord C, Tager-Flusberg H. Does Gestural Communication Influence Later Spoken Language Ability in Minimally Verbal Autistic Children? JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2024; 67:2283-2296. [PMID: 38861424 PMCID: PMC11253808 DOI: 10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 04/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE The current study examined the predictive role of gestures and gesture-speech combinations on later spoken language outcomes in minimally verbal (MV) autistic children enrolled in a blended naturalistic developmental/behavioral intervention (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation [JASPER] + Enhanced Milieu Teaching [EMT]). METHOD Participants were 50 MV autistic children (40 boys), ages 54-105 months (M = 75.54, SD = 16.45). MV was defined as producing fewer than 20 spontaneous, unique, and socially communicative words. Autism symptom severity (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition) and nonverbal cognitive skills (Leiter-R Brief IQ) were assessed at entry. A natural language sample (NLS), a 20-min examiner-child interaction with specified toys, was collected at entry (Week 1) and exit (Week 18) from JASPER + EMT intervention. The NLS was coded for gestures (deictic, conventional, and representational) and gesture-speech combinations (reinforcing, disambiguating, supplementary, other) at entry and spoken language outcomes: speech quantity (rate of speech utterances) and speech quality (number of different words [NDW] and mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]) at exit using European Distributed Corpora Project Linguistic Annotator and Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts. RESULTS Controlling for nonverbal IQ and autism symptom severity at entry, rate of gesture-speech combinations (but not gestures alone) at entry was a significant predictor of rate of speech utterances and MLUw at exit. The rate of supplementary gesture-speech combinations, in particular, significantly predicted rate of speech utterances and NDW at exit. CONCLUSION These findings highlight the critical importance of gestural communication, particularly gesture-speech (supplementary) combinations in supporting spoken language development in MV autistic children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chelsea La Valle
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Lue Shen
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, MA
- Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, MA
| | - Wendy Shih
- Center for Autism Research & Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Connie Kasari
- Center for Autism Research & Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
| | | | - Catherine Lord
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
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Gu T, Jin C, Lin L, Wang X, Li X, Jing J, Cao M. The relationship between executive function and the association of motor coordination difficulties and social communication deficits in autistic children. Front Psychiatry 2024; 15:1363406. [PMID: 38596639 PMCID: PMC11002984 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1363406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Motor coordination difficulties could contribute to social communication deficits in autistic children. However, the exploration of the mechanism implicated in these claims has been limited by the lack of potential confounders such as executive function (EF). Methods We investigated the role that EF plays in the relationship between motor coordination and social communication in a school-aged autistic population via a structural model in a statistically robust manner. The results of questionnaires, including the Developmental Coordination Disorder questionnaire, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, and the Social Responsiveness Scale, were collected to measure motor coordination, social communication deficits, and EF. Results A total of 182 autistic children (7.61±1.31 years, 87.9% boys) were included in the final analysis. In the model with EF as a mediator, the total effect (β=-0.599, P<0.001) and the direct effect (β=-0.331, P =0.003) of motor coordination function on social communication were both significant among autistic children without intellectual disability (ID), as were indirect effects through EF (β=-0.268, P<0.001). Conclusion EF partially mediates the motor coordination and social communication correlation among autistic children. We suggest that motor coordination should be included in the routine evaluation of autistic surveillance and rehabilitation procedures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tingfeng Gu
- Maternal and Child Health Department, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chengkai Jin
- Maternal and Child Health Department, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lizi Lin
- Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Environmental Pollution and Health Risk Assessment, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xin Wang
- Maternal and Child Health Department, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiuhong Li
- Maternal and Child Health Department, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jin Jing
- Maternal and Child Health Department, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Muqing Cao
- School of Sport and Health, Guangzhou Sport University, Guangzhou, China
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李 翔, 马 昕, 李 贻. [A review of studies on visual behavior analysis aided diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders]. SHENG WU YI XUE GONG CHENG XUE ZA ZHI = JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING = SHENGWU YIXUE GONGCHENGXUE ZAZHI 2023; 40:812-819. [PMID: 37666774 PMCID: PMC10477381 DOI: 10.7507/1001-5515.202204038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Revised: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and repetitive behaviors. With the rapid development of computer vision, visual behavior analysis aided diagnosis of ASD has got more and more attention. This paper reviews the research on visual behavior analysis aided diagnosis of ASD. First, the core symptoms and clinical diagnostic criteria of ASD are introduced briefly. Secondly, according to clinical diagnostic criteria, the interaction scenes are classified and introduced. Then, the existing relevant datasets are discussed. Finally, we analyze and compare the advantages and disadvantages of visual behavior analysis aided diagnosis methods for ASD in different interactive scenarios. The challenges in this research field are summarized and the prospects of related research are presented to promote the clinical application of visual behavior analysis in ASD diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- 翔 李
- 山东大学 控制科学与工程学院 (济南 250061)School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, P. R. China
| | - 昕 马
- 山东大学 控制科学与工程学院 (济南 250061)School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, P. R. China
| | - 贻斌 李
- 山东大学 控制科学与工程学院 (济南 250061)School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, P. R. China
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Chen Y, Guo L, Han M, Zhang S, Chen Y, Zou J, Bai S, Cheng G, Zeng Y. Cerebellum Neuropathology and Motor Skill Deficits in Fragile X Syndrome. Int J Dev Neurosci 2022; 82:557-568. [DOI: 10.1002/jdn.10217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 07/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Yu‐shan Chen
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Liu Guo
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Man Han
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Si‐ming Zhang
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Yi‐qi Chen
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Jia Zou
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Shu‐yuan Bai
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Gui‐rong Cheng
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
| | - Yan Zeng
- Brain Science and Advanced Technology Institute, School of Medicine Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan China
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Zhao H, Zaini Amat A, Migovich M, Swanson A, Weitlauf AS, Warren Z, Sarkar N. INC-Hg: An Intelligent Collaborative Haptic-Gripper Virtual Reality System. ACM TRANSACTIONS ON ACCESSIBLE COMPUTING 2022. [DOI: 10.1145/3487606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) have shown potential to be an effective social skill training platform for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to learn and practice collaborative and communication skills through peer interactions. However, most existing CVE systems require that appropriately matched partners be available at the same time to promote interaction, which limits their applicability to some community settings due to scheduling constraints. A second shortcoming of these more naturalistic peer-based designs is the intensive resources required to manually code the unrestricted conversations that occurred during the peer-based interactions. To preserve the benefits of CVE-based platforms and mitigate some of the resource limitations related to peer availability, we developed an Intelligent Collaborative Haptic-Gripper System (INC-Hg). This system provides an intelligent agent partner who can understand, communicate, and haptically interact with the user, without requiring the presence of another human peer. The INC-Hg operates in real time and thus is able to perform collaborative training tasks at any time and at the user's pace. INC-Hg can also record the real-time data regarding spoken language and task performance, thereby greatly reducing the resource burden of communication and interaction performance analysis. A preliminary usability study with 10 participants with ASD (ages 8–12 years) indicated that the system could classify the participant's utterances into five classes with an accuracy of 70.34%, which suggested the potential of INC-Hg to automatically recognize and analyze conversational content. The results also indicated high accuracies of the agent to initiate a conversation (97.56%) and respond to the participants (86.52%), suggesting the capability of the agent to conduct proper conversations with the participants. Compared to the results of human-to-human collaborative tasks, the human-to-agent mode achieved higher average collaborative operation ratio (61% compared to 40%) and comparable average frequencies for Initiations and Responses among the participants with ASD. These results offer preliminary support as well as areas of improvement regarding the agent's ability to respond to participants, work with participants to complete tasks, engage in back-and-forth conversations, and support the potential of the agent to be a useful partner for individuals with ASD completing CVE tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huan Zhao
- Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Ashwaq Zaini Amat
- Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Miroslava Migovich
- Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Amy Swanson
- Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Amy S. Weitlauf
- Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Zachary Warren
- Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Nilanjan Sarkar
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
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Fears NE, Palmer SA, Miller HL. Motor skills predict adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents. Autism Res 2022; 15:1083-1089. [PMID: 35322578 PMCID: PMC9167704 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Revised: 02/20/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
It is well-documented that intelligence quotient (IQ) is a poor predictor of adaptive behavior scores in autism, with autistic children having lower adaptive behavior scores than would be predicted based on their IQ scores. Differences in motor skills may explain the variability in their adaptive behavior scores. The current study examined how motor skills might explain autistic individuals' low adaptive behavior scores and which individual components of IQ (i.e., verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning) and motor skills (i.e., manual dexterity, aiming and catching, and balance) may drive this effect. We examined the associations between IQ, motor skills, calibrated severity, and adaptive behavior scores in 45 autistic children and adolescents. Using a t-test, we found a significant difference (p <0.001) between full-scale IQ and adaptive behavior scores, indicating that our participants' adaptive behavior scores were lower than would be expected given their full-scale IQ. Using a linear regression, we investigated whether motor skills predicted adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents and found that motor skills scores were associated with adaptive behavior scores (p = 0.022). To further investigate these associations, we used another linear regression to examine how individual components of IQ and motor skills predicted adaptive behavior scores in autistic children and adolescents. Our results indicated that manual dexterity scores were associated with adaptive behavior scores (p = 0.036). These findings clearly illustrate the need for further understanding of autistic individuals' difficulties with adaptive behavior and the potential role of motor skill difficulties that may underlie these difficulties. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic children have lower adaptive behavior scores (e.g., daily living skills, social skills, communication) than intelligence scores (e.g., verbal and perceptual skills) along with difficulties with motor skills. Motor skills may explain the gap between adaptive behavior and intelligence. We found motor skills were associated with adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents. In particular, hand coordination was associated with adaptive behavior. We need to better understand how autistic individuals' motor skills impact their adaptive behavior to provide effective supports.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas E Fears
- Department of Physical Therapy, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas, USA.,School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | | | - Haylie L Miller
- Department of Physical Therapy, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas, USA.,School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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