The Effects of Adult Contingent Responsiveness on Increasing Conversational Responses Through Picture Book Reading Setting in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Yuka Ishizuka; Junichi Yamamoto

doi:10.32698/GCS-04280

The Effects of Adult Contingent Responsiveness on Increasing Conversational Responses Through Picture Book Reading Setting in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Yuka Ishizuka^(1*), Junichi Yamamoto⁽²⁾

(1) University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Human Sciences, Division of Disability Sciences 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan.
(2) Keio University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Psychology 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8345 Japan
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show difficulty in sustained social interaction such as conversation with others. In particular, they often have difficulty responding to conversational initiations. Children with ASD can continue to speak one's favorite things themselves, but it is difficult to keep talking about the same topic or keyword alternately according to the content of others talking. Therefore, teaching conversational responding is important for promoting verbal interaction in children with ASD. Adult contingent response to the child’s verbal utterance may function as a reinforcer increasing child’s conversational responding. However, it is not known what type of adult contingent responsiveness is effective in promoting child’s conversational responding. The purpose of this study is to examine whether adult contingent imitation will increase conversational responding of children with ASD compared with adult contingent response through picture book reading setting. We used a single-subject ABAB design compose of the condition of contingent imitation and contingent response for two preschool children with ASD. For contingent imitation, adult. For contingent response, adult did not repeat but gave a vocal phrase to the child’s utterances through conversation immediately, such as “that’s good!” or “great!” For contingent imitation, adult immediately repeated all or part of the child’s previous utterances. The results demonstrated that adult contingent imitation increased the rate of the child’s conversational responding. These findings suggest that contingent imitation increased reciprocal vocal interaction in children with ASD compared with contingent response. These findings also suggest that contingent imitation is a useful early intervention method for children with ASD that can be practiced in a picture book reading setting. Keywords:

Keywords

Children with autism spectrum disorder; contingent imitation; conversation; echoic response; expanded response.

References

Bohannon, J. N., & Stanowicz, L. (1989). Bidirectional effects of imitation and repetition in conversation: A synthesis within a cognitive model. In The many faces of imitation in language learning (pp. 121-150). Springer, New York, NY.
Dawson, G., & Adams, A. (1984). Imitation and social responsiveness in autistic children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 12, 209-226.
Fleury, V. P. (2015). Engaging children with autism in shared book reading: Strategies for parents. Young Exceptional Children, 18, 3-16.
Ikuzawa, M., Matsushita, Y., & Nakase, A. (Eds.). (2002). Kyoto scale of psychological development 2001. Kyoto: Kyoto International Social Welfare Exchange Centre. (in Japanese).
Ishikawa, N., Omori, M., & Yamamoto, J. I. (2019). Modeling Training of Child’s Echoic Conversational Response for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: To Be a Good Listener. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 1-11.
Ishizuka, Y., & Yamamoto, J. (2016). Contingent imitation increases verbal interaction in children with autism spectrum disorders, Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 20, 1011-1020.
Jones, C. D., & Schwartz, I. S. (2009). When asking questions is not enough: An observational study of social communication differences in high functioning children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 432-443.
Kazdin, A. E. (2011). Single-case research designs: Methods for clinical and applied settings (2nd ed.). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.
Montag, J. L., Jones, M. N., & Smith, L. B. (2015). The words children hear: Picture books and the statistics for language learning. Psychological Science, 26, 1489-1496.
McDuffie, A., & Yoder, P. (2010). Types of parent verbal responsiveness that predict language in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 1026-1039.
Nadig, A., Lee, I., Singh, L., Bosshart, K., & Ozonoff, S. (2010). How does the topic of conversation affect verbal exchange and eye gaze? A comparison between typical 　development and high-functioning autism.
Neuropsychologia, 48, 2730-2739.Paul, R., Orlovski, S. M., Marcinko, H. C., & Volkmar, F. (2009). Conversational behaviors in youth with high-functioning ASD and Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 115-125.
Pelaez, M., Ortega, J. V., & Gewirz, J. L. (2011b). Reinforcement of vocalizations through contingent vocal imitation. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 33-40.
Venker, C. E., McDuffie, A., Weismer, S. E., & Abbeduto, L. (2012). Increasing verbal responsiveness in parents of children with autism: A pilot study. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 16, 568-585.

Proceeding:

International Conference on Special Education In South East Asia Region 10th Series 2020

Publisher:

Redwhite Press

ISSN (Print):

2685-5984

ISSN (Electronic):

2685-5933

Published:

March 2020