Minimally Verbal Children with ASD: Emotional Expressiveness during Social Interaction with Peer versus Adult Partners

Nirit Bauminger - Zviely

Bar - Ilan University, School of Education

Prof. Nirit Bauminger-Zviely is a Full Professor at the School of Education (SOE). She heads the school of Education and the SOE’s Graduate Program for Autism Specialization. She received her doctorate in Educational Psychology/Special Education from UCLA in 1996, specializing in social-emotional functioning of high functioning (HF) children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Prof. Bauminger’s research focuses on social-emotional development of children with ASD and on the design of relevant interventions. She heads a CBTE social intervention project that focuses on the implementation of social intervention curriculum in regular school settings across Israel for high-functioning children with ASD. Prof. Bauminger’s research gained international credit and was published in leading journals and presented in conferences throughout the world.

Shahar Bar Yehuda

Bar - Ilan University, School of Education

Shahar has a BA degree in Education and Comparative Literature and a MA degree in Management, Planning and Policy-Making in Education both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In addition, he has a MA degree in Special Education (Autism Spectrum Disorder specialization) from Bar-Ilan University. He is also a Mandel School of Educational Leadership graduate - cohort 17. Shahar is the Education Director in ALUT - the Israeli Society for Children with Autism. In this capacity, he advocates for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder rights.

Abstract

Background/Objectives:
Little is known about how minimally verbal children with ASD (MVASD) relate to peers. Comprising 30-40% of the ASD population, children with MVASD were mostly investigated regarding adult-mediated enhancement of speech production. Peer interaction, more specifically emotional expressiveness (EE) during spontaneous interaction, is cardinal for children's development of social-communicative skills. This study examine EE (facial expressions, vocalizations, gestures) during interactions with a MVASD peer versus adult partner and by examining EE’s links with CA, IQ, and social-communicative skills.
Methodology:
Participants with MVASD (n = 54; age 8-16 years) interacted with a peer and adult partner on three social-collaborative tasks (rope, ball, tray). Coding of EE during interactions used Maximally Discriminative Affect Coding (Ekman & Frisen, 1975) and Facial Action Coding (Izard, 1979). Cognitive measures were Raven (performance IQ) and Peabody-PPVT (receptive language). Social Communication questionnaire (SCQ) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) measured social-communicative abilities.
Results:
Very few clear emotions: 4 positive, 5 negative and 24 mixed emotions, were expressed more frequently toward the adult partner, especially non-communicatively, via 2-3 EE channels simultaneously.
Lower ASD severity was linked to more positive EE with a peer and more negative EE with an adult partner. Lower social impairment was linked to higher positive EE with a peer and higher negative and mixed EE with an adult partner.
Higher social impairment was linked to higher mixed EE with a peer and higher Non Verbal IQ was linked to higher mixed EE with both partners.
Conclusions/Perspectives:
EE in MVASD during collaborative social interaction is mostly expressed with an adult partner non-communicatively and idiosyncratically, via various nonverbal expression channels, demonstrating a major impairment to communicate emotions to others (especially peers).

Authors

Nirit Bauminger - Zviely (Bar - Ilan University, School of Education)
Shahar Bar Yehuda (Bar - Ilan University, School of Education)

Topic Area

Topics: Research

Session

S20 » Symposia: Comorbidities; mental health and wellbeing; access to healthcare II (09:00 - Sunday, 18th September, Tinto Room)

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