Social Skills in Individuals with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

2016 ◽  
pp. 1718-1740
Author(s):  
Lisa Marchinkoski

Nonverbal learning disability (NLD) is often a highly misunderstood diagnosis. Challenges with the understanding and use of language in social contexts can have significant negative impacts on individuals with this diagnosis, in that they struggle to interpret both nonverbal communication and nonliteral language. Understanding these challenges is critical in order to provide effective intervention. Assessment in these domains provides information about the areas to target for intervention. While individuals with NLD rely heavily on their auditory skills, it is imperative to provide means for them to learn social pragmatic and language skills in order to function in dynamically changing social exchanges. It is often indicated that teaching must occur only through verbal scripting. However, relying solely on this modality will limit students' abilities to effectively learn to apply targets in real life social situations. Therefore, a balanced approach that strives toward generalization is necessary. This chapter will provide information regarding assessment and intervention practices related to social interactions for individuals with NLD.

Author(s):  
Lisa Marchinkoski

Nonverbal learning disability (NLD) is often a highly misunderstood diagnosis. Challenges with the understanding and use of language in social contexts can have significant negative impacts on individuals with this diagnosis, in that they struggle to interpret both nonverbal communication and nonliteral language. Understanding these challenges is critical in order to provide effective intervention. Assessment in these domains provides information about the areas to target for intervention. While individuals with NLD rely heavily on their auditory skills, it is imperative to provide means for them to learn social pragmatic and language skills in order to function in dynamically changing social exchanges. It is often indicated that teaching must occur only through verbal scripting. However, relying solely on this modality will limit students' abilities to effectively learn to apply targets in real life social situations. Therefore, a balanced approach that strives toward generalization is necessary. This chapter will provide information regarding assessment and intervention practices related to social interactions for individuals with NLD.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-170
Author(s):  
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini

Traditional top-down conceptions of language policy and planning have been questioned by recent perspectives that advocate more localized accounts of language policy concerns in real-life social contexts. Schiffman’s (1996) conception of linguistic culture is one of these bottom-up approaches, which focuses on covert language policies. This study investigates some aspects of such covert orientations of speakers of the Mazandarani language towards their local vernacular in the bilingual Mazandarani–Farsi context of northern Iran. It specifically attempts to explore the current linguistic culture atmosphere in terms of assumptions, prejudices, attitudes, and stereotypes with regard to Mazandarani. These aspects of public belief are particularly investigated as referring to language use in ‘social situations’, ‘professional contexts’, ‘education’, and ‘media’. A group of 106 participants responded to a questionnaire that was aimed at eliciting their views on these linguistic culture domains as well as their ‘attitude’ towards Mazandarani. The study indicates that although the participants show very positive emotional attitudes towards their local language, their actual linguistic culture appears to be strongly in favor of the official national language, i.e. Farsi. Some concerns are raised as to the implications of such a loving-but-not-living linguistic culture for a more realistic understanding of language policy and planning.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hill ◽  
Sarah Jones ◽  
Lisa Williams ◽  
Jayne Morriss

Cross-situational emotionality is a well-established dimension of personality, however the ability to modulate emotional expression by social domain is also a key aspect of personality functioning. We describe a self-report measure, the Domain Emotional Expression Profile (DEEP), designed to assess 5 emotions and behaviours in relation to 5 social domains, and report 2 studies. Study 1 (N = 166 students) assessed construct validity based on predictions from attachment theory regarding distress expression, and explored other emotions and domains. Study 2 (N = 279 students) tested hypotheses based on findings from Study 1 and explored the status of friendship interactions. In Study 1, mean distress-expression comfort-seeking scores in family and partner interactions were substantially higher than in work and in a social (e.g. party) situation consistent with the attachment based prediction (p < .001). In exploratory analyses mean anger expression scores were similarly higher in family and partner relationships than in work and social situations. However distress expression was higher in partner than family interactions (p = .008) which was not the case for anger expression. Study 2 replicated these findings from Study 1, and indicated an intermediate position for friendships between family and partner, and work and social interactions. We report support for the construct validity of the DEEP and replicated evidence regarding the partitioning of anger expression across domains, together with new indications of friendship processes. This method of profiling emotional expression and behaviours across social contexts offers a way of characterising individual differences, including those associated with psychopathology.


1991 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Casey ◽  
Byron P. Rourke ◽  
Erin M. Picard

AbstractPrevious research has suggested that changes in the manifestations of the nonverbal learning disabilities syndrome (NLD) occur over the lifespan and that they do so in a manner that is consistent with the tenets of the NLD model (Rourke, 1989). Although the model would predict that age-related changes would also be evident within the childhood years, no study has yet examined this possibility. Based on the tenets of the model, specific predictions were formulated regarding developmental changes in the features of the NLD syndrome that would be expected to occur across the middle childhood and early adolescent years. The pattern of neurocognitive and socioemotional changes observed within the context of the cross-sectional data provided strong support for the predictions. Due to methodological limitations, no firm conclusions regarding the developmental manifestations of the NLD syndrome could be derived from the results of the longitudinal study. At most, these results suggested that some improvements in areas of neurocognitive deficiency may occur with the implementation of an appropriate remedial intervention program.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-157
Author(s):  
Andrea Lavazza ◽  
Mirko Farina ◽  

The current Covid-19 pandemic is illustrative of both the need of more experts and of the difficulties that can arise in the face of their decisions. This happens, we argue, because experts usually interact with society through a strongly naturalistic framework, which often places experts’ epistemic authority (understood as neutrality and objectivity) at the centre, sometimes at the expenses of other pluralistic values (such as axiological ones) that people (often non-experts) cherish. In this paper, we argue that we need to supplement such a strong naturalistic framework used to promote epistemic authority with a number of virtues -both intellectual and ethical- which include i. intellectual humility, ii. courage, iii. wisdom and cares, as well as iv. relational autonomy. To illustrate this claim, we discuss these ideas in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and analyse a set of real-life examples where important decisions have been delegated to experts merely based on their epistemic authority. We use the illustrative failures described in the case studies above-mentioned to call for a revision of current understandings of expertise (merely based on epistemic soundness). Specifically, we argue that in social contexts we increasingly need “experts in action”; that is, people with certified specialist knowledge, who can however translate it into practical suggestions, decisions, and/or public policies that are ethically more balanced and that ultimately lead to fairer, more inclusive, and more representative decisions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaron J. Zoller ◽  
Jeff Muldoon

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to suggest Homans’ social exchange theory (SET), a management theory, as an explanation for some of the findings of some of the Hawthorne experiments (1924-1933), which demonstrated how social situations play an important role in task performance and productivity and how social exchanges can facilitate it. The authors also use SET to investigate Elton Mayo’s inquiry as to what caused spontaneous cooperation in Hawthorne. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a combination of published work by Homans, Roethlisberger and Dickson, Mayo and others, as well as oral histories conducted by Greenwood and Bolton in 1982-1984, to argue that some of the Hawthorne studies illustrate the principles of SET. Homans’ SET brought together concepts from multiple disciplines and offered a framework to explain social behaviors. Findings The relay assembly room and the bank wiring tests of Hawthorne studies can illustrate SET as developed by Homans. With the development of SET, Homans not only provided explanations for the creation of strong feelings of affiliation and trust through interactions and mutual dependence between group members but also provided evidence to Mayo’s concept of spontaneous collaboration. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the paper are that the studies themselves can lend themselves to multiple perspectives due to design flaws. Therefore, our argument is only one interpretation – even if it is something that the researchers would have supported. Originality/value The paper augments the ongoing discussion about the Hawthorne studies in the literature and in the development of management theories such as SET. The authors provide support that it is through the attempts to explain the Hawthorne studies and the post-Second World War controversies over the studies that Homans developed social exchange. Building on previous work, the methods show perspectives beyond the motivations and sentiments of Homans by demonstrating observable behaviors from the Hawthorne studies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 2347-2352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aura Kagan ◽  
Nina Simmons-Mackie ◽  
J. Charles Victor

Purpose This research note reports on an unexpected negative finding related to behavior change in a controlled trial designed to test whether partner training improves the conversational skills of volunteers. Method The clinical trial involving training in “Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia” utilized a single-blind, randomized, controlled, pre–post design. Eighty participants making up 40 dyads of a volunteer conversation partner and an adult with aphasia were randomly allocated to either an experimental or control group of 20 dyads each. Descriptive statistics including exact 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the percentage of control group participants who got worse after exposure to individuals with aphasia. Results Positive outcomes of training in Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia for both the trained volunteers and their partners with aphasia were reported by Kagan, Black, Felson Duchan, Simmons-Mackie, and Square in 2001. However, post hoc data analysis revealed that almost one third of untrained control participants had a negative outcome rather than the anticipated neutral or slightly positive outcome. Conclusions If the results of this small study are in any way representative of what happens in real life, communication partner training in aphasia becomes even more important than indicated from the positive results of training studies. That is, it is possible that mere exposure to a communication disability such as aphasia could have negative impacts on communication and social interaction. This may be akin to what is known as a “nocebo” effect—something for partner training studies in aphasia to take into account.


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