Teaching the First Component of Social Referencing to Preschoolers with Autism; Reacting to New and Missing Objects in the Environment
Keywords:
social referencing, ASD, behavior chainAbstract
Deficits in social referencing has been associated with autism and may result in deficits in language, symbolic abilities, and other social-cognitive behaviors. When deficits in social referenceing are detected, teaching such behaviors should be a priority, yet effective teaching proceduers are lacking. We consider social referencing as a behavior chain, and suggest teaching each component in the chain in sequence. In the present article we introduce a program to teach the initial component of social referencing; reacting to new and missing objects in the environment through initiating interaction with another present person. Six children with autism spectrum disorder participated. All children acquired the skill within six months and generalized it to new people and materials. Future research could aim to replicate these findings and to develop effective procedures to establish other social referencing component skills.
Downloads
References
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.
Argott, P.J., Townsend, D.B., & Poulson, C.L. (2017). Acquisition and Generalization of Complex Empathetic Responses Among Children with Autism. Behavior Analysis in Practice 10(2), 107–117.
doi: 10.1007/s40617-016-0171-7
Bailey, J.S., & Burch, M.R. (2002). Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis
Brim, D., Townsend, D. B., DeQuinzio, J. A., & Poulson, C. L. (2009). Analysis of social referencing skills in children with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 3, 942–958.
doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2009.04. 004
Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., & Heward, W.L. (2020). Applied Behavior Analysis, 3rd edition
DeQuinzio, J.A., Poulson, C.L., Townsend, D.B., & Taylor, B.A. (2016). Social Referencing and Children with Autism. Behavior Analyst, 39(2), 319–331.
doi: 10.1007/s40614-015-0046-1
DeQuinzio, J. A., Ruch, S. A., & Taylor, B. A. (2020). Teaching children with autism to respond to joyful and fearful expressions within social referencing. Behavioral Development, 25(1), 17-29.
doi: 10.1037/bdb0000091
Every Child a Talker; ECAT, National Strategies
Feinman, S., Roberts, D., Hsieh, K., Sawyer, D., & Swanson, D. (1992). A critical review of social referencing in infancy. In S. Feinman (Ed.), Social referencing and the social construction of reality in infancy (pp. 15–54). Springer.
doi: 10.1007/978-1-4899-2462-9
Gale, C., Eikeseth, S., & Klintwall, L. (2019). Children with Autism show Atypical Preference for Non-social Stimuli. Scientific Reports, 9(1).
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46705-8
Holth, P. (2005). An operant analysis of Joint Attention Skills. Journal of early and intensive behavior intervention, 2(3).
doi: 10.1037/h0100311
Hong, E., Dixon, D. R., Stevens, E., Burns, C. O., & Linstead, E. (2018). Topography and
Function of Challenging Behaviors in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2, 206-215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-018-0063-7
Isabella, R.A., & Belsky, J. (1991). Interactional Synchrony and the Origins of Infant‐Mother Attachment: A Replication Study. Child Development, 62(2), 373–384. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01538.x
Kasari, C., & Patterson, S. (2012). Interventions addressing social impairment in autism. Current Psychiatry Reports, 14(6), 713-725.
doi: 10.1007/s11920-012-0317-4
Krantz, P.J, & McClannahan, L.E. (1993). Teaching Children with Autism to Initiate to Peers: Effects of a Script-Fading Procedure. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26(1), 121–132.
Krantz, P.J, & McClannahan, L.E. (1998). Social Interaction Skills for Children with Autism: A Script-Fading Procedure for Beginning Readers. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31(2), 191–202.
Landis, J.R., & Koch, G.G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174.
Lubomirska, A., Eldevik, S., Eikeseth, S., Stromgren, B., & Budzinska, A. (2021). The Social Referencing Observation Scale (SoROS) for children: Scale development and reliability. Behavioral Interventions, 36(2).
doi: 10.1002/bin.1789
Lubomirska, A., Eldevik, S., Eikeseth, S., Riis, S., & Budzinska, A. (2022). The Development and Validation of the Social Referencing Observation Scale as a Screening Instrument for ASD. Behavioral Interventions, 1-15.
doi: 10.1002/bin.1894
McClannahan, L.E., & Krantz, P.J. (2005). Teaching conversation to Children with Autism: Scripts and Script Fading
Schopler, E., Reichler, R.J., Bashford, A., Lansing, M. & Marcus, L. (1990). Individualized Assessment and Treatment for Autistic and Developmentally Disabled Children (Vol. 1) Psychoeducational Profile-Revised (PEP-R)
Sivaraman, M. (2017). Using Multiple Exemplar Training to Teach Empathy Skills to Children with Autism. Behavior Analysis in Practice 10(4), 337–346.
doi: 10.1007/s40617-017-0183-y
Sivaraman, M., Virues-Ortega, J., Maes-Dhaeyere, L., Saelaert, E., &Roeyers, H. (2022). Social referencing training in children with autism spectrum disorder: A randomized controlled study. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 55(3), 763-781.
doi: 10.1002/jaba.935
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2019). Report to Congress on Activities Related to Autism Spectrum Disorder and Other Developmental Disabilities
Wichnick-Gillis, A., Vener, S., Keating, C., & Poulson, C.L. (2010). The effect of a script-fading procedure on unscripted social initiations and novel utterances among young children with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4(1), 51–64.
World’s Health Organization. The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines
