Analysis of social referencing skills among children with autism

Individualizing Intervention to Teach Joint Attention, Requesting, and Social Referencing to Children with Autism

“…The TD for GS for requesting and JA was 4 s for all participants, similar to previous research in which children with ASD were taught to GS to engage in JA (Jones, 2009;Krstovska-Guerrero & Jones, 2013). The TD for GS during SR was 5 s, based on previous research in which children with autism were taught to GS during an ambiguous task (e.g., Brim et al, 2009). During the time delay condition, only independent responses (i.e., those that occurred before the end of the time delay and the interventionist's prompt) were considered correct.…”

“…As with JA and requesting, in the one study that taught SR to children with ASD, children showed variable responding. Brim, Townsend, DeQuinzio, and Poulson (2009) taught four children with ASD to engage in SR in the context of ambiguous academic tasks (e.g., a handwriting task with a jumbo marker). The interventionist used visual and verbal prompting to teach children to observe the interventionist's face and graduated guidance to teach children to complete the task in the presence of a happy face and terminate the task in the presence of a frowning face.…”

Emotional Cognition: Theory of Mind and Face Recognition

“…After the communicated message, the person may display behaviour of approach, contact or affective responding. certain components of social referencing, or this skill in its entirety, are the objects of training (Brim, Buffington Townsend, DeQuinzio, & Poulson, 2009;Buffington, Krantz, McClannahan, & Poulson, 1998;Gena, Krantz, McClannahan, & Poulson, 1996;Gewirtz & PelaezNogueres, 1992;Sigman, Arbelle, & Dissanayake, 1995).…”

Acquisition of Social Referencing via Discrimination Training in Infants

“…Advancements in early diagnosis, coupled with the evidence accrued in favor of early intervention in autism, underline the importance of developing training procedures for infants and young children (Matson & Sipes, 2010). There have been some efforts to teach social referencing to individuals with autism (Brim, Townsend, DeQuinzio, & Poulson, 2009); however, these efforts might benefit from a greater understanding of the development of social referencing in infancy. Identifying procedures that are sufficient for teaching social referencing with infants may contribute to an understanding of both typical and delayed social development.…”

“…The most prevalent etiological approach to social referencing is ''preformationism.'' According to this view, the acquisition of social referencing in infants is ''prewired'' and is not a result of social learning (Brim et al, 2009;Klinnert, Campos, Sorce, Emde, & Svejda, 1983;Campos & Stenberg, 1981). According to J. J. Campos, ''there need be no social learning for an infant to respond appropriately to social signals specifying emotion.…”