Parent-child nonverbal engagement during read versus sung book-sharing in preschoolers with and without ASD

Providing natural opportunities that scaffold interpersonal engagement is important for supporting social interactions for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Musical activities are often motivating, familiar, and predictable, and may support both children and their interaction partners by providing opportunities for shared social engagement. We assessed multiple facets of nonverbal social engagement—child and caregiver visual attention and interpersonal movement coordination—during musical (song) and non-musical (picture) book-sharing contexts in caregiver–child dyads of preschoolers with ( n = 13) and without ( n = 16) ASD. Overall, children with ASD demonstrated reduced visual attention during the book sharing activity, as well as reduced movement coordination with their caregivers, compared to children with typical development. Children in both diagnostic groups, as well as caregivers, demonstrated greater visual attention (gaze toward the activity and/or social partner) during song books compared to picture books. Visual attention behavior was correlated between children and caregivers in the ASD group but only in the song book condition. Findings highlight the importance of considering how musical contexts impact the behavior of both partners in the interaction. Musical activities may support social engagement by modulating the behavior of both children and caregivers.

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A Unique Visual Attention Profile Associated With the FMR1 Premutation

Frontiers in Genetics ◽

10.3389/fgene.2021.591211 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Molly Winston ◽

Kritika Nayar ◽

Emily Landau ◽

Nell Maltman ◽

John Sideris ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Picture Book ◽

Fragile X ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Social Stimuli ◽

Fmr1 Premutation ◽

Tracking Tasks ◽

Neurocognitive Profile ◽

Areas Of Interest

Atypical visual attention patterns have been observed among carriers of the fragile X mental retardation gene (FMR1) premutation (PM), with some similarities to visual attention patterns observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and among clinically unaffected relatives of individuals with ASD. Patterns of visual attention could constitute biomarkers that can help to inform the neurocognitive profile of the PM, and that potentially span diagnostic boundaries. This study examined patterns of eye movement across an array of fixation measurements from three distinct eye-tracking tasks in order to investigate potentially overlapping profiles of visual attention among PM carriers, ASD parents, and parent controls. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine whether variables constituting a PM-specific looking profile were able to effectively predict group membership. Participants included 65PM female carriers, 188 ASD parents, and 84 parent controls. Analyses of fixations across the eye-tracking tasks, and their corresponding areas of interest, revealed a distinct visual attention pattern in carriers of the FMR1 PM, characterized by increased fixations on the mouth when viewing faces, more intense focus on bodies in socially complex scenes, and decreased fixations on salient characters and faces while narrating a wordless picture book. This set of variables was able to successfully differentiate individuals with the PM from controls (Sensitivity = 0.76, Specificity = 0.85, Accuracy = 0.77) as well as from ASD parents (Sensitivity = 0.70, Specificity = 0.80, Accuracy = 0.72), but did not show a strong distinction between ASD parents and controls (Accuracy = 0.62), indicating that this set of variables comprises a profile that is unique to PM carriers. Regarding predictive power, fixations toward the mouth when viewing faces was able to differentiate PM carriers from both ASD parents and controls, whereas fixations toward other social stimuli did not differentiate PM carriers from ASD parents, highlighting some overlap in visual attention patterns that could point toward shared neurobiological mechanisms. Results demonstrate a profile of visual attention that appears strongly associated with the FMR1 PM in women, and may constitute a meaningful biomarker.

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PRESS-Play: Musical Engagement as a Motivating Platform for Social Interaction and Social Play in Young Children with ASD

Music & Science ◽

10.1177/2059204320933080 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 205920432093308 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Miriam D. Lense ◽

Stephen Camarata

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Social Play ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Developmental Approach ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Press ◽

Musical Engagement ◽

Musical Activities

Musical experiences are ubiquitous in early childhood. Beyond potential benefits of musical activities for young children with typical development, there has long been interest in harnessing music for therapeutic purposes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is debate as to the effectiveness of these approaches and thus a need to identify mechanisms of change (or active ingredients) by which musical experiences may impact social development in young children with ASD. In this review, we introduce the PRESS-Play framework, which conceptualizes musical activities for young children with ASD within an applied behavior analysis framework consistent with the principles of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions. Specifically, the PRESS-Play framework proposes that musical activities support key elements of evidence-based approaches for social engagement including predictability, reinforcement, emotion regulation, shared attention, and social play context, providing a platform for delivery and receipt of social and behavioral instruction via a transactional, developmental approach. PRESS-Play considers that these factors may impact not only the child with ASD but also their interaction partner, such as a parent or peer, creating contexts conducive for validated social engagement and interaction. These principles point to focused theories of change within a clinical-translational framework in order to experimentally test components of social-musical engagement and conduct rigorous, evidence-based intervention studies.

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Atypical eye gaze, affect recognition, and autonomic state in children with autism spectrum disorders: Demonstration of a compromised Social Engagement System

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e575572006-001 ◽

2006 ◽

Author(s):

Elgiz Bal ◽

John W. Denver ◽

Damon Lamb ◽

Amy Vaughan Van Hecke ◽

Stephen W. Porges

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Affect Recognition ◽

Spectrum Disorders ◽

Engagement System

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Visual Attention and Key Word Sign in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities ◽

10.1007/s10882-015-9443-3 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 33-55 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Veronica Rose ◽

David Trembath ◽

Karen Bloomberg

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Visual Attention ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Key Word

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Gaze to faces across interactive contexts in infants at heightened risk for autism

Autism ◽

10.1177/1362361317704421 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 763-768 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Devon N Gangi ◽

AJ Schwichtenberg ◽

Ana-Maria Iosif ◽

Gregory S Young ◽

Fam Baguio ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Social Partner ◽

Infant Behavior ◽

Gaze Behavior ◽

Communicative Behavior ◽

The Face ◽

High Risk Infants ◽

Social Communicative

Infant social-communicative behavior, such as gaze to the face of an interactive partner, is an important early developmental skill. Children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit atypicalities in social-communicative behavior, including gaze and eye contact. Behavioral differences in infancy may serve as early markers of autism spectrum disorder and help identify individuals at highest risk for developing the disorder. Researchers often assess social-communicative behavior in a single interactive context, such as during assessment with an unfamiliar examiner or play with a parent. Understanding whether infant behavior is consistent across such contexts is important for evaluating the validity of experimental paradigms and the generalizability of findings from one interactive context/partner to another. We examined infant gaze to the face of a social partner at 6, 9, and 12 months of age in infants who were later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, as well as low- and high-risk infants without autism spectrum disorder outcomes, across two interactive contexts: structured testing with an unfamiliar examiner and semi-structured play with a parent. By 9 months, infant gaze behavior was significantly associated between the two contexts. By 12 months, infants without autism spectrum disorder outcomes exhibited higher mean rates of gaze to faces during parent–child play than Mullen testing, while the gaze behavior of the autism spectrum disorder group did not differ by context—suggesting that infants developing autism spectrum disorder may be less sensitive to context or interactive partner. Findings support the validity of assessing infant social-communicative behavior during structured laboratory settings and suggest that infant behavior exhibits consistency across settings and interactive partners.

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Identification of social engagement indicators associated with autism spectrum disorder using a game-based mobile application

10.1101/2021.06.20.21259187 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maya Varma ◽

Peter Washington ◽

Brianna Chrisman ◽

Aaron Kline ◽

Emilie Leblanc ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Mobile Health ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Computational Techniques ◽

Visual Scanning ◽

Gaze Fixation ◽

Healthcare Needs ◽

Children With Asd

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a widespread neurodevelopmental condition with a range of potential causes and symptoms. Children with ASD exhibit behavioral and social impairments, giving rise to the possibility of utilizing computational techniques to evaluate a child's social phenotype from home videos. Here, we use a mobile health application to collect over 11 hours of video footage depicting 95 children engaged in gameplay in a natural home environment. We utilize automated dataset annotations to analyze two social indicators that have previously been shown to differ between children with ASD and their neurotypical (NT) peers: (1) gaze fixation patterns and (2) visual scanning methods. We compare the gaze fixation and visual scanning methods utilized by children during a 90-second gameplay video in order to identify statistically-significant differences between the two cohorts; we then train an LSTM neural network in order to determine if gaze indicators could be predictive of ASD. Our work identifies one statistically significant region of fixation and one significant gaze transition pattern that differ between our two cohorts during gameplay. In addition, our deep learning model demonstrates mild predictive power in identifying ASD based on coarse annotations of gaze fixations. Ultimately, our results demonstrate the utility of game-based mobile health platforms in quantifying visual patterns and providing insights into ASD. We also show the importance of automated labeling techniques in generating large-scale datasets while simultaneously preserving the privacy of participants. Our approaches can generalize to other healthcare needs.

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School-Based Social Skills Training for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities ◽

10.1177/1088357615583470 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 256-268 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Keith C. Radley ◽

Melissa B. McHugh ◽

Traci Taber ◽

Allison A. Battaglia ◽

W. Blake Ford

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Social Functioning ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Social Skills Training ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Skills Training ◽

Teacher Ratings ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Sociometric Status ◽

Baseline Design

The present study evaluated the effects of the Superheroes Social Skills program, a social skills curriculum for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous research has found the curriculum to improve social engagements of children with ASD during unstructured recess periods but has been limited in research design and lack of maintenance data. Five elementary-age participants with current placements in inclusive public school settings were included in the study. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine the effects of the intervention on social engagement during unstructured recess periods, as well as teacher ratings of social functioning and sociometric status. Visual and statistical analyses of data indicate increased social engagement of participants during recess periods following introduction of social skills training. Improvements were also observed in teacher ratings of social functioning and sociometric status. Limitations of the current study are also discussed.

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