Ocena kompetencji komunikacyjnej dziecka z zespołem Aspergera (OKKA) — własne narzędzie diagnostyczne

The article presents the author’s own tool to diagnose the level of communicative competence in a child with Asperger Syndrome at an early age. The diagnostic tool includes an interview with the parents, the diagnosis site, and exercises to check the functioning of the speech apparatus. The article presents exercises for diagnosing the level of linguistic social, situational, pragmatic, and systemic proficiency. At the end, there is a card for assessing the level of communicative competence of a child with Asperger Syndrome which will help systematize knowledge and prepare an appropriate therapy.

Epistemic calibration

Sometimes a division has been made between expressions of knowledge and expressions of emotion, but in the actual instances of interaction, they are deeply intertwined. In this paper we investigate the relationship between these expressions through the notions of affiliation and epistemics. More specifically, we analyze the phenomenon of ‘epistemic calibration’ in response to tellings of personal experience, where recipients fine-tune the strength of their access claims and the degree of their generalizations to be in line with their epistemic statuses in relation to those of the tellers. Drawing on a dataset of Finnish quasi-natural conversations with neurotypical participants and participants diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, we explore how such calibration is done in practice. Our analysis points to different challenges in epistemic calibration, which, we argue, play an important role in influencing the hearing of these responses as less than fully affiliative.

Do all students understand the same message? High school teachers' use of non-literal expressions

<p>Studies about neuro-typical, second language (L2) learners’ understanding of non-literal (e.g., metaphoric) expressions and its relationship to academic tasks are numerous. However, there are few studies (Kerber & Grunwell, 1997; Littlemore, Chen, Koester & Barnden, 2011, Lazar, Warr-Leeper, Nicholson, & Johnson, 1989) about the awareness that teachers have of their use of figurative language / non-literal expressions and the potentially problematic nature of their use of these expressions. Parallel findings are seen in the field of autism research where much of the literature on autism has highlighted the tendency for students who have been given a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (AS), a high functioning variant of autism, to take non-literal expressions literally. A primary aim of this study was therefore to explore to what extent (if at all) mainstream high-school teachers’ use of non-literal language poses obstacles for comprehension with AS-students in their classroom settings. A secondary aim of this study was to explore teachers’ awareness and knowledge about their non-literal language use with AS-students. Nine teachers and eighteen students from the same year group were participants, of which nine students had a diagnosis of AS and nine were neuro-typical students (NS). The participants were students and teachers from high-schools in Wellington, New Zealand who all spoke English as their first language (L1). A sample of episodes of the teachers’ in-class use of non-literal language, representing a range of established expressions (for example, idioms) as well as episodes of more ‘creative’ non-literal use of language (including irony), were selected to serve as prompts in interviews with the teachers. These episodes served to elicit the teachers’ reflections on the reasons for why they resorted to those figures of speech. They also served as prompts in stimulated recall interviews with the AS-students and their neuro-typical peers, where these participants were asked to give their interpretations of their teachers’ utterances. Overall, the results from this task suggested that the AS-students found it harder than their neuro-typical peers to recognize their teachers’ intended meanings. This finding, however, needs to be interpreted with caution, because the AS-students also seemed less inclined to offer the kind of explanations (for example, paraphrasing what the teacher had said) that provide clear evidence of comprehension. Interestingly, most of the AS-students demonstrated metacognitive strategies in the detection of their teachers’ creative use of metaphor and their teachers’ use of irony. However, this alone did not always result in a correct interpretation. When shown the instances of non-literal utterances they had used in class, most of the teachers reported motives for using these, but these were predominantly motives that emerged during real-time classroom interaction. Most of the teachers expressed surprise at the extent to which they (the teachers) used non-literal language in interactions with their students. Strategies to support student interpretation of figurative language are addressed together with recommendations for further research. It is intended that this study will be of interest to teachers and clinicians who support students with a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome.</p>

Do all students understand the same message? High school teachers' use of non-literal expressions

<p>Studies about neuro-typical, second language (L2) learners’ understanding of non-literal (e.g., metaphoric) expressions and its relationship to academic tasks are numerous. However, there are few studies (Kerber & Grunwell, 1997; Littlemore, Chen, Koester & Barnden, 2011, Lazar, Warr-Leeper, Nicholson, & Johnson, 1989) about the awareness that teachers have of their use of figurative language / non-literal expressions and the potentially problematic nature of their use of these expressions. Parallel findings are seen in the field of autism research where much of the literature on autism has highlighted the tendency for students who have been given a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (AS), a high functioning variant of autism, to take non-literal expressions literally. A primary aim of this study was therefore to explore to what extent (if at all) mainstream high-school teachers’ use of non-literal language poses obstacles for comprehension with AS-students in their classroom settings. A secondary aim of this study was to explore teachers’ awareness and knowledge about their non-literal language use with AS-students. Nine teachers and eighteen students from the same year group were participants, of which nine students had a diagnosis of AS and nine were neuro-typical students (NS). The participants were students and teachers from high-schools in Wellington, New Zealand who all spoke English as their first language (L1). A sample of episodes of the teachers’ in-class use of non-literal language, representing a range of established expressions (for example, idioms) as well as episodes of more ‘creative’ non-literal use of language (including irony), were selected to serve as prompts in interviews with the teachers. These episodes served to elicit the teachers’ reflections on the reasons for why they resorted to those figures of speech. They also served as prompts in stimulated recall interviews with the AS-students and their neuro-typical peers, where these participants were asked to give their interpretations of their teachers’ utterances. Overall, the results from this task suggested that the AS-students found it harder than their neuro-typical peers to recognize their teachers’ intended meanings. This finding, however, needs to be interpreted with caution, because the AS-students also seemed less inclined to offer the kind of explanations (for example, paraphrasing what the teacher had said) that provide clear evidence of comprehension. Interestingly, most of the AS-students demonstrated metacognitive strategies in the detection of their teachers’ creative use of metaphor and their teachers’ use of irony. However, this alone did not always result in a correct interpretation. When shown the instances of non-literal utterances they had used in class, most of the teachers reported motives for using these, but these were predominantly motives that emerged during real-time classroom interaction. Most of the teachers expressed surprise at the extent to which they (the teachers) used non-literal language in interactions with their students. Strategies to support student interpretation of figurative language are addressed together with recommendations for further research. It is intended that this study will be of interest to teachers and clinicians who support students with a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome.</p>

Parent experiences and coping processes when raising children with Asperger syndrome: Challenges, turning points and building resilience

<p>This study explored parent experiences and their coping responses raising a child or children with Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. A family resilience framework was used to interpret the process of positive adaptations that led to resilience. A disability studies perspective considered how parents reconceptualised what was ‘normal’ as they managed the friction between societal views of difference and their child’s strengths. The chosen methodology was narrative inquiry with a thematic approach to the narrative analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 parents and 1 grandparent of children with Asperger syndrome in New Zealand. This study found families experienced significant stress when raising a child or children with Asperger syndrome and considerable adaptations over the course of their child’s growing up years were made. Four key themes around challenges were identified: the challenges associated with Asperger syndrome, such as their child’s difficult behaviour, social skill difficulties and high sensory sensitivities; challenges arising from a lack of understanding and acceptance in the community that led to stigma and social withdrawal; challenges interacting with health and education services, such as a long medical diagnostic process and inadequate support at school; and challenges to family dynamics that resulted in increased tension between family members. Turning points were identified as part of the process of building resilience as parents successfully managed difficult circumstances at critical junctures in their lives. Positive coping strategies included meaning making, developing resources, planning ahead and solving problems; and strengthening intrapersonal assets. The findings from this study contribute to the theoretical construct of resilience and to the emerging literature on positive adaptations. Implications for practice include encouraging respectful parent and professional relationships; strengthening social support, especially through parent groups; raising parents’ self-efficacy through tailored behavioural strategies for their child; early intervention and targeted school resources; and support at critical times.</p>

Parent experiences and coping processes when raising children with Asperger syndrome: Challenges, turning points and building resilience

<p>This study explored parent experiences and their coping responses raising a child or children with Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. A family resilience framework was used to interpret the process of positive adaptations that led to resilience. A disability studies perspective considered how parents reconceptualised what was ‘normal’ as they managed the friction between societal views of difference and their child’s strengths. The chosen methodology was narrative inquiry with a thematic approach to the narrative analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 parents and 1 grandparent of children with Asperger syndrome in New Zealand. This study found families experienced significant stress when raising a child or children with Asperger syndrome and considerable adaptations over the course of their child’s growing up years were made. Four key themes around challenges were identified: the challenges associated with Asperger syndrome, such as their child’s difficult behaviour, social skill difficulties and high sensory sensitivities; challenges arising from a lack of understanding and acceptance in the community that led to stigma and social withdrawal; challenges interacting with health and education services, such as a long medical diagnostic process and inadequate support at school; and challenges to family dynamics that resulted in increased tension between family members. Turning points were identified as part of the process of building resilience as parents successfully managed difficult circumstances at critical junctures in their lives. Positive coping strategies included meaning making, developing resources, planning ahead and solving problems; and strengthening intrapersonal assets. The findings from this study contribute to the theoretical construct of resilience and to the emerging literature on positive adaptations. Implications for practice include encouraging respectful parent and professional relationships; strengthening social support, especially through parent groups; raising parents’ self-efficacy through tailored behavioural strategies for their child; early intervention and targeted school resources; and support at critical times.</p>

Teaching Children with Developmental Disabilities to Operate Portable Media Players for Leisure and Learning Purposes

<p>Social, communication, academic, and leisure skills are important for healthy development and a productive life. Individuals with developmental disabilities, however, have impairments that may affect their ability to acquire these skills or may not have had the opportunity to learn them. Compared to peers, these individuals may require additional or modified instruction to acquire new skills. A number of teaching techniques have been examined in the special education literature but as new technology, such as portable devices, become available, further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of interventions employing this new technology. The studies in this thesis examined the use of portable multimedia devices like the iPod Touch® and iPad® in combination with video modelling to teach leisure, academic and social skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. In the first two studies, students with severe intellectual disability were shown a video modelling instruction on an iPod Touch teaching them to operate the same iPod to watch video clips and listen to music. In the third study, a video modelling instruction was presented on an iPad to teach two students with Asperger syndrome how to use the spell-check function on a computer word processor. In the final study, a Social StoryTM presentation and a video modelling segment were presented on an iPad to demonstrate to two students with Asperger syndrome how to greet adults at school. An important aspect of these studies is that they afforded some degree of self-determination to the students by giving them a chance to have an input in the learning process (e.g. whether they would like to participate, how they prefer to learn, their favourite stimuli). Self-determination has been linked to a better quality of life and more positive academic, leisure, and independent living outcomes. Interventions promoting self-determination for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism are, therefore, paramount. The data from all studies suggest video modelling and portable devices can be successfully used to teach a range of skills to children with developmental disabilities. The devices were not only effective as teaching tools but also provided the participants with opportunities for leisure activities. The use of portable technology allowed for efficient intervention delivery and may have had the additional advantage of being motivating to the participants. The studies also illustrate how the same procedures can be successfully used to teach children with lower and higher cognitive abilities.</p>

Teaching Children with Developmental Disabilities to Operate Portable Media Players for Leisure and Learning Purposes

<p>Social, communication, academic, and leisure skills are important for healthy development and a productive life. Individuals with developmental disabilities, however, have impairments that may affect their ability to acquire these skills or may not have had the opportunity to learn them. Compared to peers, these individuals may require additional or modified instruction to acquire new skills. A number of teaching techniques have been examined in the special education literature but as new technology, such as portable devices, become available, further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of interventions employing this new technology. The studies in this thesis examined the use of portable multimedia devices like the iPod Touch® and iPad® in combination with video modelling to teach leisure, academic and social skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. In the first two studies, students with severe intellectual disability were shown a video modelling instruction on an iPod Touch teaching them to operate the same iPod to watch video clips and listen to music. In the third study, a video modelling instruction was presented on an iPad to teach two students with Asperger syndrome how to use the spell-check function on a computer word processor. In the final study, a Social StoryTM presentation and a video modelling segment were presented on an iPad to demonstrate to two students with Asperger syndrome how to greet adults at school. An important aspect of these studies is that they afforded some degree of self-determination to the students by giving them a chance to have an input in the learning process (e.g. whether they would like to participate, how they prefer to learn, their favourite stimuli). Self-determination has been linked to a better quality of life and more positive academic, leisure, and independent living outcomes. Interventions promoting self-determination for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism are, therefore, paramount. The data from all studies suggest video modelling and portable devices can be successfully used to teach a range of skills to children with developmental disabilities. The devices were not only effective as teaching tools but also provided the participants with opportunities for leisure activities. The use of portable technology allowed for efficient intervention delivery and may have had the additional advantage of being motivating to the participants. The studies also illustrate how the same procedures can be successfully used to teach children with lower and higher cognitive abilities.</p>

Affiliation, topicality, and Asperger’s

Objective: In storytelling environments, recipients’ questions have mainly been described as non-affiliative. This article examines how the topicality of story-responsive questions relates to the recipients’ displays of affiliation. Furthermore, we investigate whether there are differences between the practices of neurotypical participants (NT) and participants diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS) in this regard. While aiming to uncover the practices of story-responsive questions in general, we also seek to shed light on the specific interactional features associated with AS. Method: Our method is qualitative conversation analysis. Drawing on a dataset of Finnish quasi-natural conversations, we compare the interactional consequences of story-responsive questions asked by NT- and AS-participants. Results: We show how the NT-participants in our data use a specific set of practices to manage the topical relevance of their questions, while the AS-participants’ production of otherwise very similar questions differs precisely with reference to these practices. Discussion: We argue that the different ways in which the NT- and AS-participants treat the topicality of their questions influence the relative affiliative import of the questions in subtle, but yet significant ways. Conclusions: The affiliative import of story-responsive questions can only really be seen in retrospect, since, in their subsequent turns, the questioner can cast their action as having prepared the ground for affiliation.

Emotional Intelligence as a Haruspex of Societal Aftermath in Adults with Asperger Syndrome

Asperger’s syndrome is not a learning disability and it has features of autism spectrum disorder, nonverbal learning disabilities and ADHD. Asperger syndrome in the context of the domains within which some of those characteristics occur. To begin with social interaction and then move to language and then move to other “in the social interaction domain. Individuals with Asperger’s syndrome tend to have limited and sometime inappropriate kinds of behaviours in the social interaction domain. They have difficulties with nonverbal communication For example they have hard time reading gestures or facial expressions and sometimes their gesture and facial expressions, don’t communicate what it is that they’re thinking and feeling they often have difficulties understanding emotional cues so they miscue when listening to someone or watching somebody they may then say something inappropriate or they may repeat something that isn’t appropriate to the situation. Because they’re miss reading the social aspect of the situation or the emotional aspect of the situation. Individuals with Asperger’s are often seen to have low eye contact either not making good eye contact or sustaining good eye contact and in this social interaction domain. Those with Asperger’s tend also to be at risk for not having many friends, they tend to be socially isolated in the language area. Those with Asperger’s often are extremely verbal, highly verbal and their language can be very sophisticated at times what they do, when they’re talking is that they tend to discuss themselves and their interests and not focus on the interests of others. It can be a one-sided conversation and some of that prosody the flow the reciprocal flow between one person another can be awkward they tend to be literal in the ways that they understand language”.