Exploring predictors of response to a peer-mediated communication intervention for minimally verbal preschoolers with ASD

探索患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的学龄前儿童对同伴介导的沟通干预反应的预测因素

• 批准号: 10450192
• 负责人: Kathy Thiemann-Bourque
• 金额: $ 15.58万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10450192
• 关键词: Academic achievement; Address; Aftercare; Age; Attention; Augmentative and Alternative Communication; Behavior; Behavioral; Child; Child Behavior; Clinical; Cognitive; Communication; Development; Developmental Process; Early Intervention; Effectiveness; Emotional; Face; Foundations; Future; Impairment; Individual; Institutes; Instruction; Intervention; Intervention Studies; Knowledge; Language; Learning; Light; Measurement; Measures; Mediating; Methods; Motivation; Nursery Schools; Outcome; Outcome Measure; Outcome Study; Performance; Play; Population; Positive Reinforcements; Prediction of Response to Therapy; Preschool Child; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Scanning; Series; Social Development; Social Environment; Social Interaction; Stimulus; Stratification; Structure; Subgroup; Technology; Testing; Time; Training; Visual attention; autism spectrum disorder; autistic children; base; cognitive skill; cohort; communication behavior; disability; educational atmosphere; evidence base; improved; individuals with autism spectrum disorder; innovation; interest; joint attention; kindergarten; peer; peer influence; predicting response; reinforcer; response; skills; social; social attention; social communication; social engagement; social interventions; social reciprocity; social skills; therapy design; treatment response; virtual vocal tract; visual tracking

PROJECT SUMMARY This R21 proposal will explore and examine individual child social variables that predict response to a peer-mediated intervention for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and limited to no spoken communication. This subgroup of children with ASD present with a myriad of social and communication challenges that restrict participation in educational and social environments, and approximately 30% remain minimally verbal by the time they reach kindergarten. Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) are a widely-used and evidence-based approach to teach social communication to young children with ASD. Recent reports have documented the benefits of incorporating augmentative and alternative communication (e.g., speech-generating devices) into PMIs to increase communication and social interactions with peers in inclusive setttings. Children's social competence with peers is considered a fundamental developmental process that contributes to later language, social-emotional development, and academic achievement. To date, we are not aware of studies identifying specific child variables that predict child response to PMIs. There is evidence of differences in social attention (i.e., visual attention/scanning of social stimuli) for children with ASD compared to typically-developing children. It is probable that among individuals with ASD, variability in performance on measures of social attention (i.e., visual attention to the face) and interest in peers (i.e., showing joint attention and imitation) may be important predictors of response to PMIs. Measuring proximal behaviors such as social attention and peer interest moves beyond prior efforts focusing on more global child variables (e.g., cognitive skills) and should allow for identifying those children who require tailoring of PMIs. The overall objective of this innovative study is to examine potential child variables that predict response to PMI for preschoolers with ASD (n=40) with limited to no spoken communication. Two peers without disabilities will be paired with each child with ASD (n=80 peers). All children will participate in a PMI developed and examined by the PI over a series of empirical studies. The specific aims are to: determine what social variables (i.e., social attention and peer interest) predict response to the PMI at 8 weeks post-treatment and in generalization probes, and to determine if variance in child communication gains, accounted for by the social variables, differs based on the pre-treatment measurement context (i.e., semi-structured peer assessment, naturalistic observations, and eye-tracking paradigms). The team is highly qualified to accomplish these aims as investigators have developed social interventions for children with ASD, created observational methods to assess child-peer communication, and have used eye-tracking technology to measure early attention and communication. Expected outcomes could have important clinical implications for optimizing PMIs (e.g., for children who have poor social attention and peer interest), and identifying stratification variables that could be incorporated into future intervention research for an understudied group of children with ASD.

项目概要 该 R21 提案将探索和检查个体儿童的社会变量，这些变量可预测患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的学龄前儿童对同伴介导干预的反应，并且仅限于无言语 沟通。这个患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的儿童亚群表现出大量的社交和沟通能力 限制参与教育和社会环境的挑战，大约 30% 仍然存在 当他们到达幼儿园时，他们很少会说话。同伴介导的干预措施（PMI）是一种广泛使用的干预措施 以及基于证据的方法向患有自闭症谱系障碍的幼儿教授社交沟通。最近的报告 已经记录了将增强和替代通信（例如，语音生成设备）纳入 PMI 中以增加与包容性同行的沟通和社交互动的好处 设置。儿童与同龄人的社交能力被认为是一个基本的发展过程 有助于以后的语言、社会情感发展和学术成就。迄今为止，我们还没有 了解确定可预测儿童对 PMI 反应的特定儿童变量的研究。有证据表明 自闭症儿童的社会注意力（即视觉注意力/社会刺激扫描）的差异 对于正常发育的儿童。患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的个体中，其表现可能存在差异 社会注意力（即对面部的视觉关注）和对同伴的兴趣（即表现出共同的兴趣）的衡量标准 注意力和模仿）可能是对 PMI 反应的重要预测因素。测量近端行为，例如 随着社会关注和同伴兴趣超越先前关注更多全球儿童变量的努力（例如， 认知技能），并且应该能够识别那些需要定制 PMI 的儿童。整体 这项创新研究的目的是检查预测 PMI 反应的潜在子变量 患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的学龄前儿童 (n=40)，言语交流受限或无法进行。两名无残疾的同龄人将 与每个患有 ASD 的孩子配对（n = 80 个同龄人）。所有儿童都将参加制定和审查的 PMI 由 PI 进行一系列实证研究。具体目标是： 确定哪些社会变量（即 社会关注度和同伴兴趣）可预测治疗后 8 周时对 PMI 的反应以及一般情况 探查，并确定儿童沟通增益的差异是否由社会变量引起， 根据治疗前测量环境（即半结构化同行评估、自然主义评估）而有所不同 观察和眼动追踪范式）。该团队非常有资格实现这些目标 研究人员为患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童制定了社会干预措施，并创建了观察方法 评估儿童与同伴的沟通，并使用眼球追踪技术来衡量早期注意力和 沟通。预期结果可能对优化 PMI 具有重要的临床意义（例如，对于 社会关注和同伴兴趣较差的儿童），并确定可能的分层变量 纳入未来针对自闭症谱系障碍儿童研究组的干预研究。