Visual and Hearing Sensitivity Affect Robot-Based Training for Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder

In this paper, we investigate the impact of sensory sensitivity during robot-assisted training for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Indeed, user-adaptation for robot-based therapies could help users to focus on the training, and thus improve the benefits of the interactions. Children diagnosed with ASD often suffer from sensory sensitivity, and can show hyper or hypo-reactivity to sensory events, such as reacting strongly or not at all to sounds, movements, or touch. Considering it during robot therapies may improve the overall interaction. In the present study, thirty-four children diagnosed with ASD underwent a joint attention training with the robot Cozmo. The eight session training was embedded in the standard therapy. The children were screened for their sensory sensitivity with the Sensory Profile Checklist Revised. Their social skills were screened before and after the training with the Early Social Communication Scale. We recorded their performance and the amount of feedback they were receiving from the therapist through animations of happy and sad emotions played on the robot. Our results showed that visual and hearing sensitivity influenced the improvements of the skill to initiate joint attention. Also, the therapists of individuals with a high sensitivity to hearing chose to play fewer animations of the robot during the training phase of the robot activity. The animations did not include sounds, but the robot was producing motor noise. These results are supporting the idea that sensory sensitivity of children diagnosed with ASD should be screened prior to engaging the children in robot-assisted therapy.

Combining a Being Imitated Strategy With IBT Improves Basic Joint Attention Behaviors in Young Children With ASD

In the present study, we examined how an initial being imitated (BIm) strategy affected the development of initiating joint attention (IJA) among a group of children newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One group received 3 months of BIm followed by 12 months of intensive behavior treatment (IBT) which equaled treatment as usual whereas a second group received IBT for the entire 15-month study period. We utilized two measures of IJA: an eye gaze and a gesture score (point and show). IJA did not change during the first 3 months of treatment, nor were any significant between-group differences noted. However, at the end of the 15-month-long intervention period, the BIm group used eye gaze significantly more often to initiate joint attention. No significant change was noted for the gesture score. These results suggest that an early implementation of a being imitated strategy might be useful as less resource intensive but beneficial “start-up” intervention when combined with IBT treatment as a follow-up.

Exploring coaching and follow-up supports in community-implemented caregiver-mediated JASPER intervention

Although a growing number of caregiver-mediated intervention models for families with children with autism are being examined in efficacy trials, few have been transferred to community implementation. Furthermore, little testing has explored implementation strategies to support caregivers’ strategy use with their children. In partnership with a publicly funded intervention agency in Canada, this pilot project explored intervention implementation strategies and follow-up supports. Dyads were randomized at entry to coaching or observe then add coaching and at intervention exit to individual or group follow-up booster. The caregiver-mediated Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement and Regulation intervention was provided by agency staff to a diverse community sample of families with young children awaiting or diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Independent agency staff delivered assessments and recorded a caregiver–child interaction. Blinded raters scored children’s initiations of joint attention, play actions, joint engagement, and caregivers’ strategy implementation. Practitioners implemented the intervention and coaching strategies well ( M = 83%). Overall, caregivers made significant gains in strategy use and children showed significant growth in joint engagement, play diversity, and joint attention across conditions through public caregiver-mediated intervention services. Caregivers’ strategy use supported gains in children’s joint engagement. Lay abstract The next step for communication interventions for young children with autism include coaching/teaching for caregivers that have been tested in university clinics and testing these interventions in real world systems with early intervention providers who serve children and families in their communities. However, there are few projects that have tested how well the intervention can be transferred to community providers and what types of progress children and caregivers make in these services. This project took place in partnership with a community early intervention agency in the province of Ontario, Canada. The agency provided government-funded public health services. The agency was funded to take part in a pilot program to try out one of four early intervention models that included coaching for caregivers and was designed to support children’s social engagement, play, and communication skills. The team decided to test two ways to start the intervention: (a) begin with observation of the practitioner for 4 weeks and then start coached practice with the child and (b) start coaching immediately. The team also tested two ways to support families for 3 months after intervention: (a) group booster sessions and (b) individual visits. The practitioners delivered the intervention well ( M = 83%), and overall, caregivers and children made significant gains by the end of intervention in both observation + coaching and coaching. Attendance for follow-up boosters was variable with fewer families attending groups. More research is needed to test different strategies and roles to individualize interventions for caregivers with a range of goals and learning styles.

Proactive or reactive? Neural oscillatory insight into the leader-follower dynamics of early infant-caregiver interaction

We know that infants’ ability to coordinate attention with others towards the end of the first year is fundamental to language acquisition and social cognition (Carpenter et al., 1998). Yet, we understand little about the neural and cognitive mechanisms driving infant attention in shared interaction: do infants play a proactive role in creating episodes of joint attention? Recording EEG from 12-month-old infants whilst they engaged in table-top play with their caregiver, we examined the ostensive signals and neural activity preceding and following infant- vs. adult-led joint attention. Contrary to traditional theories of socio-communicative development (Tomasello et al., 2007), infant-led joint attention episodes appeared largely reactive: they were not associated with increased theta power, a neural marker of endogenously driven attention, or ostensive signals before the initiation. Infants were, however, sensitive to whether their initiations were responded to. When caregivers joined their attentional focus, infants showed increased alpha suppression, a pattern of neural activity associated with predictive processing. Our results suggest that at 10-12 months, infants are not yet proactive in creating joint attention. They do, however, anticipate behavioural contingency, a potentially foundational mechanism for the emergence of intentional communication (Smith & Breazeal, 2007).

What are you looking at? Gaze following with and without target objects in ASD and typical development

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display difficulties with response to joint attention in natural settings but often perform comparably to typically developing (TD) children in experimental studies of gaze following. Previous work comparing infants at elevated likelihood for ASD versus TD infants has manipulated aspects of the gaze cueing stimulus (e.g. eyes only versus head and eyes together), but the role the peripheral object being attended to is not known. In this study of infants at elevated likelihood of ASD ( N = 97) and TD infants ( N = 29), we manipulated whether or not a target object was present in the cued area. Performance was assessed at 10, 14, and 18 months, and diagnostic assessment was conducted at age 3 years. The results showed that although infants with later ASD followed gaze to the same extent as TD infants in all conditions, they displayed faster latencies back to the model’s face when (and only when) a peripheral object was absent. These subtle atypicalities in the gaze behaviors directly after gaze following may implicate a different appreciation of the communicative situation in infants with later ASD, despite their ostensively typical gaze following ability. Lay abstract During the first year of life, infants start to align their attention with that of other people. This ability is called joint attention and facilitates social learning and language development. Although children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to engage less in joint attention compared to other children, several experimental studies have shown that they follow other’s gaze (a requirement for visual joint attention) to the same extent as other children. In this study, infants’ eye movements were measured at age 10, 14, and 18 months while watching another person look in a certain direction. A target object was either present or absent in the direction of the other person’s gaze. Some of the infants were at elevated likelihood of ASD, due to having an older autistic sibling. At age 3 years, infants were assessed for a diagnosis of ASD. Results showed that infants who met diagnostic criteria at 3 years followed gaze to the same extent as other infants. However, they then looked back at the model faster than typically developing infants when no target object was present. When a target object was present, there was no difference between groups. These results may be in line with the view that directly after gaze following, infants with later ASD are less influenced by other people’s gaze when processing the common attentional focus. The study adds to our understanding of both the similarities and differences in looking behaviors between infants who later receive an ASD diagnosis and other infants.

The Effect of Socioeconomic Disparities on Prefrontal Activation in Initiating Joint Attention: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Evidence From Two Socioeconomic Status Groups

Low socioeconomic status (SES) may generally have a long-lasting negative effect on cognitive development, and show deficits in the development of executive functions. However, it is unclear whether there is an SES-dependent disparity in the functional brain development of the prefrontal cortex. By collecting task-related functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data and behavioral data (e.g., intelligence, language, home reading environment (HRE), family income, and parental education level), the current study aimed to detect whether the SES of preschool children (N = 86) is associated with prefrontal activation during the joint attention task. Results verified that low-SES children show lower right prefrontal activation during joint attention than Relatively High-SES children. In addition, our findings confirmed the mediating effect of HRE on the association between SES and brain activation during joint attention, as well as that between SES and language ability. These results suggest that SES contributes to functional development of the prefrontal regions, and the improvement of HRE could be a potential strategy to intervene SES-related disparities on child development.