Does Animation Facilitate Understanding of Graphic Symbols Representing Verbs in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Picture communication symbols and voice symbols: iconicity and preference among healthy older adults in Taiwan

Purpose.

Unaided (e.g., speech and gestures) and aided (e.g., symbol corpuses) communication modes facilitate older adults' expression and comprehension. Adults aged 65 years and above constituted 18.27% of Taiwan's total population in 2023; hence, prioritizing high-quality healthcare for older adults becomes critical. Commercial symbol corpuses, such as Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) and Voice Symbols (VS), play a vital role in aiding older adults with expression and comprehension in Taiwan. Previous studies on iconicity and preference of symbol corpuses have primarily been conducted in Western and South Asian cultural communities. However, these findings may not apply to all Asian communities. Hence, studies investigating these aspects in specific communities are needed. Through quantitative nonexperimental observations, we explored the iconicity of and preference for PCS and VS among 30 healthy older adults in Taiwan.

Materials and Methods.

A total of 12 practice words and test words each, familiar to the participants and socially and culturally validated, were selected for the developed VS-PCS iconicity and preference measurement. Verbal choices were made to select one line drawing in both measurements.

Results & Conclusions.

The findings revealed that VS is significantly more transparent and preferred than PCS. Accounting for the iconicity of and preferences for symbol corpuses is pivotal for symbol selection.

Parent-implemented AAC verb symbol intervention with children with ASD

A multiple-probe across participants design was used to examine whether three young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could learn to use verb symbols presented on an AAC application to request actions. Using researcher coaching (involving joint planning, descriptive instructions, and guided practice) parents of participants were taught to (a) embed opportunities for children to request actions in daily home routines, (b) model AAC responses, (c) use a prompt hierarchy with a time delay, and (d) contingently reinforce correct aided AAC responses. Following intervention delivered by parents, all three participants increased their use of verb symbols to request actions and parents implemented procedures with high fidelity. There were, however, individualized differences in rate of acquisition, variability of responding, readiness for fading supports, and moving to more advanced skills. One of the three participants was able to master two-step responses involving navigation to a category folder. Generalization of requesting actions to labeling actions was limited.

Guessability of Indian picture symbols for communication (IPSC) and picture communication symbols (PCS) among Malayalam-speaking typical adults

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived symbol referent relationship for selected symbols in typical adults for two different symbol sets: Indian Picture Symbols for Communication (IPSC) and Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) to identify cultural influences on symbol recognition. A total of 240 typical adults, including 120 nonprofessionals, and 120 health professionals, from Kerala, a southern state in India, participated in the study. A guessability task involving IPSC and PCS symbols for 30 target referents was utilized. Guessability scores for each participant as well as each symbol stimuli across two symbol sets were determined. The guessability scores for IPSC were significantly (p <.001) higher than PCS. For both symbol sets, nouns were the most accurately guessed, followed by verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. The results also revealed that prompting and previous exposure to symbols tend to influence the transparency of symbols. Error analyses revealed that visual and conceptual cues within a symbol tend to influence guessability. The results indicate that cultural and linguistic factors play a role in symbol guessability. The study highlights the importance of investigating the iconicity of IPSC and PCS symbols across different populations within India, before using symbols for educational/clinical purposes.

Considering preferences, speed and the animation of multiple symbols in developing P300 brain-computer interface for children

PURPOSE

Prior research has begun establishing the efficacy of animation in brain-computer interfaces access to augmentative and alternative communication (BCI-AAC). However, the use of animation in P300-BCI-AAC for children is in the early stages and largely limited to single item highlighting of extended durations. In pursuit of practical application, the present study aims to evaluate children's event-related potential (ERP) characteristics and user experience during a task involving an animated P300-BCI-AAC system.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The system utilizes multi-item zoom animations to access a 28-pictorial symbols. Participants completed a fast (100 ms) and slow (200 ms) zoom animation highlighting conditions wherein four pictorial symbols were highlighted concurrently.

RESULTS

The proposed display appears feasible, eliciting all targeted ERPs. However, ERP amplitudes may be reduced in comparison to single-item animation highlighting, possibly due to distraction. Ratings of mental effort were significantly higher for the 100 ms condition, though differences in the frontal P200/P300 ERP did not achieve significance. Most participants identified a preference for the 100 ms condition, though age may impact preference.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, findings support the preliminary feasibility of a proposed 28-item interface that utilises group zoom animation highlighting of pictorial symbols. Further research is needed evaluating ERP characteristics and outcomes from online (real-time) use of animation-based P300-BCI-AAC for children with severe speech and physical impairments across multiple training sessions.

Promoting Simple and Engaging Brain-Computer Interface Designs for Children by Evaluating Contrasting Motion Techniques

PURPOSE

There is an increasing focus on using motion in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. In considering brain-computer interface access to AAC (BCI-AAC), motion may provide a simpler or more intuitive avenue for BCI-AAC control. Different motion techniques may be utilized in supporting competency with AAC devices including simple (e.g., zoom) and complex (behaviorally relevant animation) methods. However, how different pictorial symbol animation techniques impact BCI-AAC is unclear.

METHOD

Sixteen healthy children completed two experimental conditions. These conditions included highlighting of pictorial symbols via both functional (complex) and zoom (simple) animation to evaluate the effects of motion techniques on P300-based BCI-AAC signals and offline (predicted) BCI-AAC performance.

RESULTS

Functional (complex) animation significantly increased attentional-related P200/P300 event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes in the parieto-occipital area. Zoom (simple) animation significantly decreased N400 latency. N400 ERP amplitude was significantly greater, and occurred significantly earlier, on the right versus left side for the functional animation condition within the parieto-occipital bin. N200 ERP latency was significantly reduced over the left hemisphere for the zoom condition in the central bin. As hypothesized, elicitation of all targeted ERP components supported offline (predicted) BCI-AAC performance being similar between conditions.

CONCLUSION

Study findings provide continued support for the use of animation in BCI-AAC systems for children and highlight differences in neural and attentional processing between complex and simple animation techniques.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24085623.

An Evidence-Based Approach to Augmentative and Alternative Communication Design for Individuals With Cortical Visual Impairment

PURPOSE

This article highlights the contributions of three pillars of an evidence-based practice approach (service providers, researchers, and families/clients) in the development of a framework to offer a way forward for professionals, families, and technology companies to support optimal visual and communication outcomes of individuals with cortical visual impairment (CVI) who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). By providing available research findings as well as practical information and lived experiences, the article offers clinical considerations and design features that can lead to addressing the unique needs of these individuals.

METHOD

This article reviews literature concerning what is known about CVI and describes in detail and from multiple viewpoints important features required in AAC systems to support individuals with CVI and enable them to communicate effectively.

RESULTS

Components necessary for teams, communication partners, and AAC designers to optimize AAC system design in CVI are presented using external research evidence as internal evidence from lived experience to support their importance.

CONCLUSIONS

An AAC system design that is tailored to the unique visual processing characteristics in CVI is likely to promote positive communication outcomes. The presentation of the lived experience of an individual who has CVI themselves illustrates the need for individualized assessments and interventions that incorporate and reflect the research presented here.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23902239.

Dynamic Assessment of AAC Action Verb Symbols for Children with ASD

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make progress in learning to use action verb symbols on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) applications across different communicative functions (requesting, labeling) and instructional formats (embedded instruction, discrete trial teaching).

Methods

Four preschool-aged children completed graduated prompting dynamic assessment sessions in which they were provided with varying levels of support (e.g., models, gestures) across three instructional conditions: (a) requesting actions embedded in play, (b) labeling actions embedded in play, and (c) labeling actions presented via video during discrete trial teaching. An adapted multielement single-case design was used to compare participants' abilities to use symbols with different levels of support across the instructional conditions and a control.

Results

Differences between instructional and control conditions were established for three participants. Three participants also reduced the levels of support they needed to use symbols in at least two instructional conditions. Although participants initially required lower levels of support (i.e., less restrictive prompts) in the requesting condition compared to labeling conditions, these differences only maintained for one participant. Across participants, differences between labeling conditions were minimal.

Conclusions

Although children with ASD can use verb symbols with low levels of support during DA, additional intervention may be needed to increase independent responding. Individual characteristics may influence success across communicative functions.

The Effects of Symbol Format and Psycholinguistic Features on Receptive Syntax Outcomes of Children Without Disability

PURPOSE

The graphic symbol is the foundation of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for many preliterate individuals; however, research has focused primarily on static graphic symbol sequences despite mainstream commercial technologies such as animation. The goal of this study was to compare static and animated symbol sequences across receptive communication outcome measures and psycholinguistic features (e.g., word frequency).

METHOD

A counterbalanced, 2 × 2 × 2 mixed design was used to investigate the effects of symbol format (animated and static), first condition (animated or static), and first experimental task (identification or labeling) on identification accuracy and labeling accuracy of graphic symbol sequences (five symbols) in 24 children with typical development ages 7 and 8 years old. Additionally, three 2 × 2 repeated-measures analyses of variance were conducted using symbol format (animated and static) and (a) word frequency (low, high), (b) imageability (low, high), and (c) concreteness (low, high).

RESULTS

In addition to superior identification and labeling accuracy of animated sequences, a significant interaction between symbol format and the first condition was observed for both experimental tasks. When the animation format was the first condition, then the children's performance improved in the subsequent static condition. Finally, word frequency, imageability, and concreteness ratings for all verbs and prepositions had significant effects on labeling accuracy of verbs and prepositions. Significant interactions between symbol format and psycholinguistic features were also found. For example, highly imageable, animated verbs were labeled with greater accuracy when compared with all other variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Animation technology appears to alleviate some of the burden associated with word- and sentence-level outcomes in children with typical development. Moreover, animation appears to reduce the effects of psycholinguistic features such as word frequency and imageability by increasing the transparency of the symbol. Given the increase in research in this area, speech-language pathologists may consider adopting animated graphic symbols on a case-by-case basis as a tool to augment the learning of word classes in which movement is integral to comprehension.

Analysis of Graphic Language Expression in Visual Communication Design

With the continuous development of society, only relying on words can no longer satisfy the mutual communication between people and countries. In the background of the data era, graphics language also meets more opportunities and challenges, so it is of great significance to transform data into the graphics language. This paper mainly designs a set of a data-based intelligent system. Through the research of multi-dimensional data visualization, firstly, the high-dimensional data is processed to reduce the dimension, so as to get the lower dimensional data, and then the low-dimensional data is transformed into a more intuitive type of graphic markers, so that users can understand the high-dimensional data more intuitively. The research results show that the system can provide users with the most appropriate label type and save users more time and energy. Data visualization has different experiences for different users, so it is a very important challenge to make users feel that pivoting is as effective as possible.

Word imageability is associated with expressive vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Throughout typical development, children prioritize different perceptual, social, and linguistic cues to learn words. The earliest acquired words are often those that are perceptually salient and highly imageable. Imageability, the ease in which a word evokes a mental image, is a strong predictor for word age of acquisition in typically developing (TD) children, independent of other lexicosemantic features such as word frequency. However, little is known about the effects of imageability in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who tend to have differences in linguistic processing and delayed language acquisition compared to their TD peers. This study explores the extent to which imageability and word frequency are associated with early noun and verb acquisition in children with ASD.

METHODS

Secondary analyses were conducted on previously collected data of 156 children (78 TD, 78 ASD) matched on sex and parent-reported language level. Total expressive vocabulary, as measured by the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI), included 123 words (78 nouns, 45 verbs) that overlapped with previously published imageability ratings and word input frequencies. A two-step hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the relationship between word input frequency, imageability, and total expressive vocabulary. An F-test was then used to assess the unique contribution of imageability on total expressive vocabulary when controlling for word input frequency.

RESULTS

In both the TD and ASD groups, imageability uniquely explained a portion of the variance in total expressive vocabulary size, independent of word input frequency. Notably, imageability was significantly associated with noun vocabulary and verb vocabulary size alone, with imageability explaining a greater portion of the variance in total nouns produced than in total verbs produced.

CONCLUSIONS

Imageability was identified as a significant lexicosemantic feature for describing expressive vocabulary size in children with ASD. Consistent with literature on TD children, children with ASD who have small vocabularies primarily produce words that are highly imageable. Children who are more proficient word learners with larger vocabularies produce words that are less imageable, indicating a potential shift away from reliance on perceptual-based language processing. This was consistent across both noun and verb vocabularies.

IMPLICATIONS

Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature describing early word learning in children with ASD and provide a basis for exploring the use of multisensory language learning strategies.

Opportunities and Challenges in Developing Technology-Based Social Skills Interventions for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Analysis of Parent Perspectives

Interest continues to be high in technology-based interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Understanding the preferences and challenges of technology use among individuals with ASD can inform the design of such interventions. Through 18 interviews with parents, we used an iterative inductive-deductive approach to qualitative analysis and explored uses of technology for social skills development among adolescents with ASD. Our findings include parents’ observations about their adolescent’s preferences in types of technology devices and digital content, as well as both positive and negative effects of technology use on mood and behavior. Parents highlighted several avenues of technological preferences and risks that may inform intervention design, enhance user engagement, and capitalize on users’ strengths while buttressing areas for growth.

The Influence of Key Facial Features on Recognition of Emotion in Cartoon Faces

Cartoon faces are widely used in social media, animation production, and social robots because of their attractive ability to convey different emotional information. Despite their popular applications, the mechanisms of recognizing emotional expressions in cartoon faces are still unclear. Therefore, three experiments were conducted in this study to systematically explore a recognition process for emotional cartoon expressions (happy, sad, and neutral) and to examine the influence of key facial features (mouth, eyes, and eyebrows) on emotion recognition. Across the experiments, three presentation conditions were employed: (1) a full face; (2) individual feature only (with two other features concealed); and (3) one feature concealed with two other features presented. The cartoon face images used in this study were converted from a set of real faces acted by Chinese posers, and the observers were Chinese. The results show that happy cartoon expressions were recognized more accurately than neutral and sad expressions, which was consistent with the happiness recognition advantage revealed in real face studies. Compared with real facial expressions, sad cartoon expressions were perceived as sadder, and happy cartoon expressions were perceived as less happy, regardless of whether full-face or single facial features were viewed. For cartoon faces, the mouth was demonstrated to be a feature that is sufficient and necessary for the recognition of happiness, and the eyebrows were sufficient and necessary for the recognition of sadness. This study helps to clarify the perception mechanism underlying emotion recognition in cartoon faces and sheds some light on directions for future research on intelligent human-computer interactions.

Comparative Effects of Picture Symbol With Paired Text and Text-Only Augmentative and Alternative Communication Representations on Communication From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose Technology features that maximize communicative benefit while minimizing learning demands must be identified and prioritized to amplify the efficiency and effectiveness of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention. Picture symbols with paired text are a common representation feature in AAC systems for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are preliterate, yet little research about their comparative benefit exists. Method Four school-age children with ASD and limited speech who were preliterate participated in two single-subject studies. In one study, communication of high imageability words (e.g., nouns) on an AAC app during a book-reading activity was compared across two representation conditions: picture symbols with paired text and text only. In the second study, communication of low imageability words (e.g., verbs) was compared. Both studies had baseline, intervention, generalization, and maintenance phases. Results Prior to intervention, participants communicated across both representation conditions at low rates except two participants who were relatively successful using picture symbol with paired text representations of high imageability words. In response to intervention, all participants demonstrated increases in communication across representation conditions and maintained the increases. Participants demonstrated generalization in the text-only representation condition. Conclusions Children with ASD who were preliterate acquired communication at comparable rates regardless of whether an AAC app utilized picture symbol with paired text or text-only representation. Therefore, while larger scale research is needed, clinicians and technology developers could consider increasing the use of text in AAC representation given the inherent value associated with learning to recognize written words. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13661357.