Increasing observational learning of children with autism: a preliminary analysis

Fully robotic social environment for teaching and practicing affective interaction: Case of teaching emotion recognition skills to children with autism spectrum disorder, a pilot study

21st century brought along a considerable decrease in social interactions, due to the newly emerged lifestyle around the world, which became more noticeable recently of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, children with autism spectrum disorder have further complications regarding their social interactions with other humans. In this paper, a fully Robotic Social Environment (RSE), designed to simulate the needed social environment for children, especially those with autism is described. An RSE can be used to simulate many social situations, such as affective interpersonal interactions, in which observational learning can take place. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed RSE, it has been tested on a group of children with autism, who had difficulties in emotion recognition, which in turn, can influence social interaction. An A-B-A single case study was designed to show how RSE can help children with autism recognize four basic facial expressions, i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, through observing the social interactions of two robots speaking about these facial expressions. The results showed that the emotion recognition skills of the participating children were improved. Furthermore, the results showed that the children could maintain and generalize their emotion recognition skills after the intervention period. In conclusion, the study shows that the proposed RSE, along with other rehabilitation methods, can be effective in improving the emotion recognition skills of children with autism and preparing them to enter human social environments.

Effects of differential observing responses on observational learning across multiple contingencies

Whether a child with autism spectrum disorder will exhibit observational learning may depend on their attention to and the stimulus modalities of the observed contingency. We used multiple-probe and repeated-acquisition designs to test observational learning across a diverse set of contingencies, which included hidden edible, hidden toy, hidden video, tact, receptive identification, and intraverbal contingencies. During preteaching, 2 children with autism spectrum disorder showed observational learning with some contingencies. After learning to engage in differential observing responses for observed behaviors and consequences with the hidden-video contingency, 1 child showed generalization of observational learning with receptive identification and intraverbals. Neither child showed generalization with the tact contingency. Thus, teaching was initiated with the tact contingency, which led to generalization of observational learning with tacts. The efficacy of teaching differential observing responses over observational learning was demonstrated. Inconsistent observational learning across contingencies suggests scientist-practitioners should assess observational learning across a variety of contingencies.

Impaired social facilitation on voluntary exercise of BALB/cCrSlc mice, a proposed as an autism spectrum disorder model

Impaired social facilitation was reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children. However, behavioral analysis methods of social facilitation for ASD model have not been reported. We developed a novel breeding home cage for social facilitation. Voluntary exercise of more social C57BL/6 J mice was significantly increased in the presence of observer mouse compared to that in the absence of observer mouse. In contrast, the presence of observer mouse did not affect voluntary exercise of less social BALB/cCrSlc mice. These suggest that BALB/cCrSlc mice, a mouse model of ASD, exhibited impaired social facilitation. Our method would provide novel clues for ASD pathophysiology.

Aprendizagem Observacional em Crianças com Autismo: Efeitos do Ensino de Respostas de Monitoramento via Videomodelação

Resumo O presente estudo investigou o estabelecimento de respostas de monitoramento via videomodelação em duas crianças com transtorno do espectro autista e se essas respostas favoreceriam a aprendizagem observacional de tatos e textuais nessas crianças. Foram realizados pré e pós-testes de aprendizagem observacional via videomodelação. O treino de monitoramento foi realizado em três etapas: (1) ensino da resposta de monitoramento; (2) desenvolvimento de controle do responder do participante pelo responder do modelo e (3) controle do responder do participante pela consequência para o modelo. As duas crianças aprenderam a resposta de monitoramento em quatro sessões e houve a aquisição de tatos e textuais por aprendizagem observacional para um dos participantes. Discute-se o potencial da videomodelação para treinar comportamentos precorrentes necessários para a aprendizagem observacional.

Observational learning and children with autism: discrimination training of known and unknown stimuli

We extended past observational learning research by incorporating stimuli already known to participants into training. We used a multiple-baseline design across three participants to determine the effects of discrimination training on the discrimination of consequences applied to modeled responses using both known and unknown pictures. During baseline, participants were exposed to modeled correct and incorrect picture labels and were observed to imitate modeled responses that were incorrect and followed by negative feedback. During discrimination training, we taught participants to label known pictures regardless of observed responses and consequences. With unknown pictures, we taught participants to imitate correct and reinforced modeled responses, and to say, "I don't know," when modeled responses were incorrect and received negative feedback. Test sessions measured responding to known and unknown pictures and showed acquisition over baseline levels. Generalization to pictures not associated with training was variable. Implications for teaching observational learning to children with autism are discussed.

Teaching observational learning to children with autism

Observational learning (OL) is critical for the acquisition of social skills and may be an important skill for learning in traditional educational settings. Although OL occurs during early childhood in the typically developing population, research suggests that it may be limited in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of the present study was to develop an assessment to test for the presence of OL across a variety of tasks. If OL was deficient, we sought to teach it by training specific skills. Six participants who had been diagnosed with ASD demonstrated deficits in OL. After an initial assessment, a multiple-probe design across OL tasks showed that training produced acquisition of these skills across multiple exemplars. After training, 5 of the 6 participants engaged in OL across multiple tasks and task variations, demonstrating generalization. For 1 participant, generalization of performance did not occur across tasks but did occur within task variations.