Comparative study of interactions between children with ASD and adults withoutwith VIG feedback to a

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Comparative study of interactions between
children with ASD and adults without/with VIG
feedback to adults

• Heather Sked
• Educational Psychologist in Training
• University of Dundee
• Video Interaction Guidance International
  Research Network Conference
• West Park Centre, University of Dundee
• 30.6.06

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Structure

• Background to my interest in this area
• Description of methodology
• Video clips
• Initial results regarding childrens interaction
• VIG process
• for adult participants
• my role as a participant observer
• Questions and discussion

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Background to my interest in this area 1

• Open University course Personality, Development
  and Learning in 1993
• Donaldson (1978)
• Trevarthen on intersubjectivity between mothers
  and infants
• Schaffer (1977)
• Brazelton on cycles of arousal in infants
• Proto-conversations
• Related to own experience

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Background to my interest in this area 2

• MSc Educational Psychology in Dundee 2004-2006
• Hilary Kennedy
• Reading re intersubjectivity Trevarthen, Nadel,
  Bullowa
• Contact principles
• Opportunity to train as a VIG guider

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Background to my interest in this area 3

• VIG practitioners network meeting
• Skills development for support staff working with
  a child with autism
• VIG opportunities
• Exploring the communication process for a child
  who is deaf/blind and has cerebral palsy
• Inspired by Michelle McLarens pilot study for
  her PhD (2004)

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Michelle McLarens research design for her pilot
study
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Some of Michelles findings

• Coded for three behavioural variables
• direction of gaze for the parent and child
• physical position of the dyad in relation to
  each other
• physical proximity of the dyad.
• Increase in time partners were close to one
  another
• Increase in time partners sat side by side
• Eye contact varied

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My research questions

• Does the interaction between a child with an ASD
  and a known adult improve when the adult imitates
  the childs actions in a play situation?
• (Hypothesis the interaction will improve.)
• Is the adult more attuned to the child?
• (Hypothesis the adult will be more attuned to
  the child.)
• Is the child more attuned to the adult?
• (Hypothesis the child will be more attuned to
  the adult)
• Does the interaction between a child with an ASD
  and a known adult improve further when the adult
  receives VIG feedback on the communication
  involved in the imitation process?
• (Hypothesis the interaction will improve
  further.)
• Is the adult further attuned to the child?
• (Hypothesis the adult will be further attuned
  to the child)
• Is the child further attuned to the adult?
• (Hypothesis the child will be further attuned
  to the adult)

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Attunement Caldwell (2006)

• we . have to be attuned, the sort of attitude
  that Pranves father was talking about when he
  said that instead of being against Pranve when
  he was upset, trying to control him, we needed to
  be for him, empathising with his situation
  and, especially, how he feels. In particular it
  requires that we empty our selves, putting away
  our own agendas and become receptive to other.

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Methodology

• A known adult will be filmed interacting with a
  child with an ASD on four occasions
• Dual sets of familiar toys should be available on
  each occasion.
• The dyad will be filmed (10 minutes maximum)
  playing as they would usually do.
• The dyad will be filmed again (10 minutes
  maximum). The adult will be asked to imitate the
  childs play actions on this occasion.
• On a subsequent visit the adult will be given VIG
  feedback focussing on the communication involved
  in the imitation process.
• The dyad will then be filmed again (10 minutes
  maximum). Again the adult will be asked to
  imitate the childs play actions.
• The VIG film/feedback process will be repeated
  twice more to maximise effect.
• The films will be analysed using a coding system
  to measure the incidence of aspects of
  communication.

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Finding participants

• Identification of schools
• School approval
• Identification of child participants
• Parental approval home visit
• Identification of adult participants - support
  for learning auxiliaries
• Signed permissions

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Actual participants

• 2 primary 1 children attending special school
  full time year 1 placement
• 2 primary 4 children attending Support for
  Learning base in mainstream primary full time
  year 2 placement
• 2 primary 7 children attending another Support
  for Learning base in another mainstream primary
  full time year 2 placement

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Some thoughts about the methodology

• Guidance for adult participants about extent of
  imitation expected
• Participants interpretation of dual sets of
  toys
• Free choice of activity / identified by adult
• Variation in activity / same activity
• Variation in position
• Variation of mood and circumstance

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Coding minute 4.01 5.00 in each film

• Childs gaze
• his toy, adults toy, shared toys, adult, other
  toys, other
• Adults gaze
• his toy, adults toy, shared toys, adult, other
  toys, other
• Childs action
• his toy, adults toy, shared toys, adult, other
  toys, other
• Adults action
• his toy, adults toy, shared toys, adult, other
  toys, other
• Child verbal, adult verbal
• Also noted initiations and expressions of
  pleasure on the Excel worksheet
• Also transcribed the interaction to accompany the
  worksheet

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Coding sheet and transcript

• Can you foresee any difficulties regarding the
  coding categories?
• Do any patterns jump out at you from the data
  here?

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Results for BW direction of childs gaze
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Results for BW direction of adults gaze
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Results for BW childs action
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Results for BW adults action
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Results for BW verbal contributions
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From a first look at my data

• Direction of adult gaze suggests attention to
  child
• Child verbal input up
• Adult verbal input down
• Child making more initiatives
• Longer sequences of turntaking
• Desire to communicate??
• Adult reports calming, enjoyable, closer
  relationships
• Caldwell the long term prospects appear to be
  positive provided there is consistency must
  continue to use their language

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VIG feedback first session

• No imitation film
• Emphasis on existing good practice
• Starter questionnaire
• Adult comments on what she feels is working well
  between her and child in film
• Introduce contact principles - diagram
• Discuss relative one-sidedness of communication
  in this film

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Contact principles diagram
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VIG feedback first session

• Imitation film 1
• Watch selected clips of positive interaction in
  second film
• Adult invited to identify contact principles
  observed in film
• Invitation to consider / try out imitation in
  course of work with child before next session

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Subsequent sessions

• Continued identifying contact principles observed
  in imitation films
• Static rather than developmental?
• Tension between imposed project and the spirit of
  VIG?
• Attempt to marry two approaches listen for core
  message and consider whether and how imitation
  could impact on this

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More reading.

• Beaver, R. (1996) describes the interaction of
  pacing and leading elements in matching when
  building rapport
• Beyer, J. and Gammeltoft, L. (2000) - describes
  how swapping the lead in imitative play can be
  achieved with children with autism.
• Caldwell, P. (2006) - describes Phoebes
  intensive interaction work with adults with
  autism. She believes imitation is effective as
  we are communicating in the particular language
  of the individual person. Some effects she has
  noted are a marked increase in verbal
  communication, verbal and physical expressions of
  pleasure and calmer behaviour patterns.

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HB

• Receive core message re spitting
• Client initiative link bottle feeding?
• Client had been exploring use of imitation with
  HB between sessions
• Client initiative blowing when HB spits
• My contributions link to theory
• Client reports later more blowing, less
  spitting, calmer, more co-operative

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Results for HB direction of childs gaze
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Results for HB direction of adults gaze
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Results for HB childs action
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Results for HB adults action
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Results for HB verbal contributions
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Initial thoughts on evaluating VIG feedback
process

• Starter questionnaire and evaluation
• Before no one identified imitation as a
  technique they used to facilitate communication
  with child
• After all said they would use imitation in
  future and could identify situations when they
  thought it could help
• All made positive comments about the feedback
  process
• Participant researcher adds to the variables
• COMOIRA as a structure to understand process

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COMOIRAConstructionist Model of Informed
Reasoned Action (Gameson, Rhydderch, Ellis
Carroll, 2003)
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Conclusions?

• Does the interaction between a child with an ASD
  and a known adult improve when the adult imitates
  the childs actions in a play situation?
• Is the adult more attuned to the child?
• Is the child more attuned to the adult?
• Does the interaction between a child with an ASD
  and a known adult improve further when the adult
  receives VIG feedback on the communication
  involved in the imitation process?
• Is the adult further attuned to the child?
• Is the child further attuned to the adult?
• Discuss!