Context and communication strategies in naturalistic behavioural intervention: A framework for understanding how practitioners facilitate communication in children with ASD

Abstract

There are many different approaches to intervention aimed at facilitating the social and communicative abilities of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Behavioural interventions seek to improve the social and communicative abilities of children with ASD through interaction. Recently there has been a move towards naturalistic behaviour-based interventions (NBI). Despite this trend there has been relatively little research into the mechanics of this approach. This study investigated an intervention programme aimed at pre-school children with ASD to identify, first, the different contexts of interaction during the intervention and, second, the communication strategies developed by the practitioners. Eight children were followed through the intervention programme, resulting in 21 hours of video data. Ten contexts of interaction were identified, including play, directed tasks and transitions. Practitioners combined structure and directiveness in their communication strategies. Six levels of directiveness were identified, ranging from observing to prompting. A distinction was made between emergent and imposed structures. The interaction strategies, within this dataset, which resulted in prolonged and varied discourse were based on dynamic emergent structures and in the mid range of the directiveness continuum. The findings are discussed with reference to how strategies may be identified and implemented by practitioners within NBI.

The development of co-speech gesture in the communication of children with autism spectrum disorders

“…Activities during the sessions included free play in a sensory stimulation room, one-to-one interaction with a practitioner, training in the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS; Frost & Bondy, 2002), ''snack time'' and group work. More detailed information regarding these activities is given in Sowden et al (2011). Figure 1 shows the proportion of time spent on each activity for each participant, by session.…”

“…All participants had previously been diagnosed with ASD by an NHS professional, and were referred to the project by the local NHS ASD team. Participants were eligible for the project when they began attending an NHS intervention programme designed for pre-school children with the aim of facilitating socialisation and communication through naturalistic behaviour-based methods (see Sowden, Perkins, & Clegg, 2011 for further detail of the intervention programme). Two assessments were used by the NHS practitioners during the programme, neither of which were standardised.…”

The Effects of Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching Implemented in Classrooms for Preschoolers With or at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Limitations of “highly structured teaching approaches” Schreibman et al (2015, p. 2414) for young children with ASD and the movement toward providing instruction in natural settings (e.g., home, school) have prompted a shift toward more naturalistic and developmental interventions that incorporate behavioral learning principles (Schreibman et al, 2015; Sowden et al, 2011). Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching (PMT; Yoder & Warren, 1998) is a manualized intervention that combines behavioral principles and naturalistic strategies to target early developing behaviors (e.g., eye gaze, gestures, vocalizations) used to request and share attention.…”

Asperger Syndrome

“…Naturalistic teaching strategies were developed based on concerns related to applied behavior analysis (ABA) instruction resulting in (a) lack of spontaneous use and generalization of skills and (b) instruction divorced from communication and socialization (cf., Sowden, Perkins, & Clegg, 2011 ). Naturalistic teaching strategies are embedded into child-directed play schema.…”