Autistic individuals have significant social-communication challenges that commonly persist into adulthood and impact academic, social, and vocational pursuits. More than two decades of research have established video behavior modeling as a successful, cost-effective, and time-efficient intervention tool for autistic children; however, less…

Many individuals with autism experience challenges using language in social contexts (i.e., pragmatic language). Characterizing and understanding pragmatic variability is important to inform intervention strategies and the etiology of communication challenges in autism; however, current manual coding-based methods are often time and labor…

This article describes effective communication-related practices by reviewing specific evidence-based techniques, sharing how these techniques have been used in various treatment approaches, and discussing a constellation of general principles vital to treatment success. A comprehensive model of service delivery is provided to illustrate these key…

There are essentially four types of non-verbal communication: touching, moving, gazing (these are the truly "non-verbal modalities"), and para-linguistic aspects of vocalizing. These types of non-verbal communication are measured in five different dimensions: (1) frequency, (2) duration, (3) magnitude, (4) rates-frequency per time, (5)…

Defining communication fidelity as the communication of ideas by one person in a way that results in the construction of congruent ideas by the recipient of that communication, this paper describes a model of basic communication based on this construct that will provide specific information about communication problems. The paper also discusses…

THE FOCUS OF THE STUDY IS UPON THE INTERNAL CHANGE AGENT IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. IT RESULTS FROM THE ASSUMPTION THAT IT WOULD BE VALUABLE FOR THE SYSTEM TO HAVE A ROLE PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH THE PHENOMENA OF CHANGE. THE CHANGE AGENT IS REFERRED TO AS A TRAINER ROLE, SINCE TRAINED BEHAVIOR OF INDIVIDUALS CAN INCREASE THE POTENTIAL FOR PLANNED,…

This laboratory training model developed out of the observed difficulties students were having in bridging the gap between classroom and the field. Describes methods, techniques, structure and evaluation of two laboratories, set up as a neutral setting for students to practice their communication skills. (Editor/PG)

Examines models and treatment approaches for communication apprehension: (1) conditioned anxiety--systematic desensitization; (2) negative cognitive appraisal--cognitive modification; and (3) skills deficit--skills training. Provides direction for future treatment research. (PD)

A model of the generation of initial trusting attitudes toward groups by individuals who were not members of those groups was developed from the literature on interpersonal trust. The model proposed that perceptions of situational threat would be preconditions to the saliency of trust as a concept. Given that trust was a salient concept, the model…