Keeping a conversation going is the social glue of friendships. The DSM criteria for autism list difficulties with back-and-forth conversation but does not necessitate that all autistic children will be equally impacted. We carried out three studies (two pre-registered) with verbally fluent school children (age 5-9 years) to investigate how…

This article reports on the methodological approach taken in a doctoral study that explores what it means to be struggling as a teacher. Participants were established and experienced teachers and leaders in the secondary school system in England. A particular form of collage -- where materials are placed rather than stuck -- was used within the…

As a result of the association of autism with speech and language difficulties, autistic school children can be subject to interventions ostensibly intended to remedy these problems. However, my study, based in five mainstream primary schools in England, which incorporated the views and experiences of school staff (n = 36), autistic children…

Background: Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) have the potential to support sociocommunicative interactions for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but little is known about the sense of presence participants feel in CVEs or how CVEs can be used to assess skills. Method: Ten children with ASD and 10 typically developing (TD)…

Video is an increasingly popular data collection tool for those undertaking social research, offering a temporal, sequential, fine-grained record which is durable, malleable and sharable. These characteristics make video a valuable resource for researching Early Years classrooms, particularly with regard to the study of children's interaction in…

This study considers in what ways sustained shared thinking between young children aged 5-6 years can be facilitated by working in dyads on a computer-based literacy task. The study considers 107 observational records of 44 children from 6 different schools, in Oxfordshire in the UK, collected over the course of a school year. The study raises…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of personalized books on parents' and children's engagement during shared book reading. Seven native English parents and their children aged between 12 and 33 months were observed at home when sharing a book made specifically for the child (i.e. a personalized book), a comparable book with no…

Interviews young people about their first sexual intercourse. Main findings show communication plays a central role mediating between the degree of anticipation and the degree to which first intercourse is wanted, protected, and enjoyed. First intercourse tends to be silent. Where young people are ambivalent, verbal and non-verbal communication…

Results of a study of 21 biology teachers in England indicate that classroom behaviors result from a complex interplay of both verbal and nonverbal elements of communication. By manipulating certain nonverbal behaviors, it might be possible to control verbal and social interactions. (Author/KC)

Reported in this document are observations of early childhood education in England, Israel, Seychelles, and China. Specifically, observations focus on (1) teacher behavior, including behavior toward individuals, small groups, and large groups or whole classes; (2) teacher demonstration behaviors; (3) teacher verbal and nonverbal behaviors, such as…

Reports a study of nonverbal communication in which 77 female student teachers of physical education were observed during teaching practice to identify any patterns of communicative acts, the balance of verbal and nonverbal components, and whether the patterns are related to pupil responsiveness. Cluster and factor analysis are used. (EAO)