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…

This study employed a single factor experiment to investigate how different voices from a social robot affect the learning outcomes and motivation of 46 children. The learning motivation for the participants was measured using the ARCS questionnaire, which tested for four subcategories: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. The…

Before they are 3;0-3;6, children typically do not engage with peers in focused interaction, although they do with adults. With parents, children interact around the "here-and-now". We hypothesize that young peers do not attempt to establish joint attention to present objects. Using the CHILDES database, we compared attention-directives…

Recent research in adults has made great use of the gaze cuing paradigm to understand the behavior of the follower in joint attention episodes. We implemented a gaze leading task to investigate the initiator--the other person in these triadic interactions. In a series of gaze-contingent eye-tracking studies, we show that fixation dwell time upon…

Results did not support previous work suggesting large amounts of communication failure in the spontaneous talk of 4-year-old children. (Author)

Results indicating that adult males direct more praise, verbal help, and other forms of positive attention to responsive than to unresponsive children are contrasted with results obtained in a previous study of the reactions of women subjects. (Author/JMB)

Sixteen dyads comprised either of deaf toddlers and their deaf mothers or deaf toddlers and their hearing mothers were compared on the use and success of various means for establishing mutual attention for communication. Results suggested the deaf-deaf dyads experienced significantly more episodes of mutual attention because the deaf mothers were…

Presents an analysis of the control techniques adopted by the mothers of 15- and 24-month-old children during an eight-minute laboratory play situation. Mothers were requested to take an active role in the interaction by ensuring that the child played with the full range of toys available. (JMB)

The effects of infant responsiveness and marital satisfaction on parent-infant reciprocity in face-to-face interactions are examined in this study. Thirty-two middle to upper-middle class couples attending LaMaze classes were recruited for the study. There were equal numbers of male and female infants. When the infants were approximately three…

Forty-eight mothers and their four- to six-year-old children participated in a controlled disciplinary encounter in which the children's attentiveness was manipulated. Results suggested that parents may use commands to get their children's attention and then use reasoning once their children are listening. (JMB)

Qualitative analysis of videotape recordings of seven mothers and their sons with autism (ages 2 and 3) found that mothers mostly engaged in verbal regard (conversation) and directive behaviors. Sons were able to give some form of regard 69% of the time, mostly in the form of active task participation rather than verbal or visual regard.…

This paper presents a study of the looking and looking away or gaze alternation behavior of both full term and preterm infants in the presence of varying degrees of facial animation. The faces used in the study included, in increasing order of animation, a Raggedy Ann doll's face, a moving and talking doll's face, a mother's less animated face…

Children with infantile autism display characteristics and behaviors that severely limit their growth and functioning on many levels. Research is reviewed in which principles of operant conditioning are implemented in procedures designed to investigate and/or modify the autistic child's behavior in the following areas: (a) social interaction, (b)…