Introduction
It is important to note that autism spectrum disorder is a condition that is the result of abnormal brain development. The key impacts of the disease are manifested in a person’s ability to socialize with other individuals and one’s perception of his or her surrounding social environment. Patterns of repetitive and limited behaviors can also be noticed among affected patients. Autism spectrum disorder is not a singular condition but rather a collection or spectrum of varying disorders, which share similar symptoms with different intensities and combinations. The first effects of the disease present themselves in early childhood and become more apparent when such a person is introduced into society, where his or her social functioning is impaired. The purpose of the presented research study is to study the communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorder through the assessment of their ability to converse effectively within a dialogue framework. The study is important since it provides a better assessment and evaluation metric to understand the implications of the disease on the core aspect of socialization, which is interpersonal communication. The proposed research will focus on analysis of communication parameters, which include verbal empathy, focus on the topic of the conversation, take natural dialogue turns, conversation engagement, and body language, specifically eye contact.
Literature Review
One of the key features of autism spectrum disorder is impaired social skills, which requires a more in-depth assessment in order to improve the general understanding of the subject. The disorder shows signs usually when a child reaches two years of age, and the initial months might appear normal (Hollander et al., 2022). It is stated that “the median incidence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reported across countries is estimated as 62 per 10 000, and available data suggest ASD does not appear to be more prevalent in any particular geographic region, socioeconomic, or ethnic group” (Gillon et al., 2017, p. 8). Autism spectrum disorder can vary in its manifestations because there is divergence in the level of severity and behavioral patterns. However, the most evident symptoms involve socialization, especially speech and communication. Since the focus of the proposed research is to assess interpersonal communication competencies and abilities of children with the condition, key elements need to be identified. It is stated that “a difference in the prelinguistic vocalizations of young children later diagnosed with ASD has also been suggested as an important positive behavioral marker characterizing this disorder” (Broome et al., 2017, p. 1012). In other words, there are valid communicative indicators when it comes to analyzing autism.
In order to conduct a valid, reliable, and accurate analysis, the assessment process needs to be aware of the challenges of the process. It is stated that “as many children with ASD use self-directed or context-specific communication, they may have particular difficulty demonstrating their ability during a formal assessment” (Broome et al., 2017, p. 1011). Therefore, proper measures of assessment are critical for investigating the impact of the condition on a child’s communication skills. Another study suggests that “autistic children have decreased speech perception abilities relative to their TD peers in auditory, visual, and audiovisual domains” (Stevenson et al., 2017, p. 1289). In addition, “data provide novel evidence that autistic children do not benefit from multisensory integration to the same degree as their TD peers do, even when accounting for differences in visual lip reading abilities” (Stevenson et al., 2017, p. 1289). Therefore, children with autism perceive speech with more difficulty than typically developing or TD children, and the engagement of multiple senses is not effective.
Research Questions and Hypothesis
- In what developmental milestones of communication do children with autism spectrum disorder lag behind the unaffected ones?
- Which specific indicators of the communication and conversation were lacking or incomplete in the process of examination?
The hypothesis is that children with autism spectrum disorder do not fully develop key communication milestones, such as verbal empathy, focus on the topic of the conversation, take natural dialogue turns, conversation engagement, and body language, specifically eye contact.
Methods: Sample, Procedure, And Analysis
The methodological framework for the study will be based on an interview process of 20 children aged 5-7 years old, half of whom are children with the disorder. The process will involve their parents and toys, and the conversation will be centered around the subjects and topics reported by the parents in regards to their children’s interests. The toy composition will also be adjusted in accordance with the preferences. The analysis will use the scoring system on the basis of eye contact, conversation engagement, turn taking in the dialogue, the focus on the conversation topic, and exhibition of verbal empathy. Therefore, the dialogue script will involve questions and statements, which are designed to invoke these responses in order to test the selected indicators among children with and without autism spectrum disorder.
In order to ensure that children are given a positive environment for engagement, several tasks are prepared to test the indicators. The core elements of the method are based on Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA, which is designed to study behavior and learning (Hollander et al., 2022). The first task is aimed at learning how a child can make up a dialogue. The procedure will be based on the fact that pictures will be prepared, which depict situations and some characters, where the task is to determine what they do and what they can talk about. Two points will be given if the child conducts a dialogue on behalf of several characters, and in the dialogue, there are more than three persons of the dialogue, extensive speech turns are used. One point will be given if the child can hold a maximum of three dialogue characters, has poor speech patterns, and the child does not show interest. Zero points will be given if the child selects only the topic displayed in the pictures and cannot come up with dialogue.
The next task is aimed at studying which cues in children are used more often in speech, stimuli, or reactions. The procedure for conducting this is a conversation on the topic of how the child’s day went, where the child was also asked to ask, and how the day went with the teacher. Two points will be given if the child equally promotes communication and responds to reactions, actively participates in the dialogue. One point will be given if the child responds more frequently to reactions, uses little to promote communication, and is easily distracted. Zero points will be given if responses to responses are small, there is no progress in communication, and speech is passive.
Ethical Considerations
Since the research involves children, there are evident ethical considerations. In order to mitigate them, parental consent, confidentiality, and anonymity are ensured. The space of the interview is accommodated in accordance with parents’ specifications in order to ensure comfort and calmness for the children involved.
Discussion: Expected Results, Conclusions, And Limitations
It is expected that children with the disorder might exhibit delayed developments of the key communication milestone indicators, such as the lack of engagement, the lack of eye contact, inability to facilitate the conversation, and inability to exhibit empathy verbally. Children with autism are expected to perceive tasks as uninteresting. The child might have a manifestation of echolalia, which means that a word or phrase is repeated multiple times (Hollander et al., 2022). Based on the conversation with parents and the questionnaire, the child might have behavioral deviations in communication since childhood, and the child will not want to play with other children, interact and communicate with strangers. In addition, it is possible that the child will not respond to his or her name for a long time will not respond to the appeal and conversation of people in the proximity except for the parent.
Conclusion
In conclusion, children with autism spectrum disorder will be studied on their competencies in verbal speech, dialogue, and interpersonal communication. The literature review revealed that the communication capabilities of affected children are poorly studied. The method will be focused on the parameters, such as verbal empathy, focus on the topic of the conversation, take natural dialogue turns, conversation engagement, and body language, specifically eye contact. The expected results include echolalia, inattentiveness, low engagement, and avoidance of eye contact. Autism spectrum disorders have been a generally recognized problem of childhood, which is expressed in a disorder in the development of social skills and adaptations, as well as in the problems of the development of communicative means of communication, the disorders are associated with a special systemic disorder in the mental development of the child, manifested in the formation of one’s affective and volitional sphere, in cognitive development.
References
Broome, K., McCabe, P., Docking, K., & Doble, M. (2017). A systematic review of speech assessments for children with autism spectrum disorder: Recommendations for best practice. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 26(3), 1011- 1029. Web.
Gillon, G., Hyter, Y., Fernandes, F. D., Ferman, S., Hus, Y., Petinou, K., Segal, O., Tumanova, T., Vogindroukas, I., Westby, C., & Westerveld, M. (2017). International survey of speech-language pathologists’ practices in working with children with autism spectrum disorder. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 69(1-2), 8–19. Web.
Hollander, E., Hagerman, R., & Ferretti, C. (2022). Textbook of autism spectrum disorders. American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
Stevenson, R. A., Baum, S. H., Segers, M., Ferber, S., Barense, M. D., & Wallace, M. T. (2017). Multisensory speech perception in autism spectrum disorder: From phoneme to whole-word perception. Autism Research, 10(7), 1280–1290. Web.