Koulunkäynninohjaajan vastaamattomuus autismikirjon oppilaan sosiaalisiin aloitteisiin

Vuorovaikutuskumppanit eivät aina vastaa autismikirjon lasten aloitteisiin. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, millaisia päällekkäistyviä vuorovaikutuksellisia projekteja koulunkäynninohjaajalla ja autismikirjon oppilaalla oli silloin, kun ohjaaja ei vastannut oppilaan sosiaaliseen aloitteeseen. Aineistona oli laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin analysoidut videotaltioinnit, jotka koostuivat kolmen autismikirjon oppilaan ja heidän henkilökohtaisten koulunkäynninohjaajiensa vuorovaikutuksesta. Tulosten mukaan lähes puolessa tilanteista vastaamattomuuteen liittyi koulunkäynninohjaajan päällekkäistyvä projekti, joka esti vastaamista tai teki vastaamattomuuden ohjaajan näkökulmasta tarkoituksenmukaiseksi. Aloitteisiin vastaamattomuuden yksilökeskeinen tarkastelu ei ole näin ollen riittävää, koska vastaamattomuutta rakentavat myös vuorovaikutuskumppanin institutionaalinen rooli, kasvatukselliset tavoitteet ja projektien suhde toisiinsa

An interactional ‘live eye tracking’ study in autism spectrum disorder : combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in the study of gaze

Recent studies on gaze behaviours in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have utilised “live eye tracking.” Such research has focused on generating quantitative eye tracking measurements, which provide limited (if any) qualitative contextual details of the actual interactions in which gaze occurs. This article presents a novel methodological approach that combines live eye tracking with qualitative interaction analysis, multimodally informed conversation analysis. Drawing on eye tracking and wide-angle video recordings, this combination renders visible some of the functions, or what gaze “does,” in interactional situations. The participants include three children with ASD and their adult co-participants during body-movement gaming sessions. The article demonstrates how quantitative eye tracking research can be extended qualitatively using a microanalytic interaction analysis to recontextualise the gaze shifts identified. The findings in this article show that the co-participants treat a child’s gaze shifts differently depending on when these occur in a stream of other action. The study suggests that introducing this qualitative dimension to eye tracking research could increase its ecological validity and offer new insight into gaze behaviours in ASD.peerReviewe

Student Teachers' Positive Perceptions of Characteristics and Personality of People on the Autism Spectrum: "Challenging in a Positive Way".

This paper presents quantitative and qualitative findings from an interdisciplinary research project exploring student teachers' positive perceptions of people on the autism spectrum. The set of findings reported in this paper asked 704 student teachers from one university in England (n = 191), Finland (n = 251) and Sweden (n = 262) to write down the first three words they thought of to identify the characteristics of people on the autism spectrum. Data was analysed using a multi-layered, deductive co-rated coding approach. Through this approach repeated words were extracted as were negative and undetermined words, leaving only positive words. Examination of the positive words identified found differences in the manner student teachers focus on the positive characteristics of people on the autism spectrum as this is an understudied area of research. Finnish student teachers more frequently used language to describe the positive characteristics of people on the autism spectrum that reflected their perception of learning being their primary professional role. However, English and Swedish student teachers used language that showed they perceived their role as encompassing the social and emotional development of their pupils, with little reflection about the positive characteristics of people on the autism spectrum as learners

Are stuttering-like disfluencies in people with autism part of a wider perseveration problem? A case study of three young adults

Introduction: Little is known about the background and characteristics of speech (dis)fluency co-occurring with neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism. In a previous study, we observed that in addition to the characteristics usually observed in stuttering, autistic adults produced other disfluency features, such as word-final disfluencies and atypical insertions (Pirinen et al., 2023). The aim of this study is to present these features in more detail in three persons who experienced a considerable amount of these atypical disfluencies as well as other perseverative features, such as palilalia. Methods: The cases of this study (C1, C2, & C3) were autistic young adults with a General Ability Index above 70. Based on a narrative speech sample, speech disfluencies were analyzed and categorized as stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD), other disfluencies (OD), and atypical disfluencies (AD). Results: Disfluency frequencies per 100 syllables for each case were as follows: 5.6 SLD, 5.6 OD, and 7.9 AD for C1, 2.3 SLD, 6.9 OD, and 1.9 AD for C2, and 8.2 SLD, 10.1 OD, and .24 AD for C3. In addition to disfluency types frequently observed in typical speech and/or stuttering, each participant produced atypical disfluencies. C1 and C2 produced prolongations and repetitions in word-final positions, and C3 produced excessive phrase repetitions, which reflected features of palilalia. Each of the abovementioned disfluency types reflected patterns of repetitive and/or involuntary movements. Discussion: While some disfluency characteristics observed in autistic persons are similar to what is typically seen in developmental stuttering, others clearly differ. Difficulties in terminating sounds in word-final positions and continuous perseveration could be indicative of a more widespread inflexibility and perseveration problem. The findings of this study will increase our understanding of how these different types of repetitive and perseverative behavior in autistic persons are manifested in their speech production

A Comprehensive Analysis of Speech Disfluencies in Autistic Young Adults and Control Young Adults: Group Differences in Typical, Stuttering-Like, and Atypical Disfluencies

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls by using a wide-range disfluency classification of typical disfluencies (TD; i.e., filled pauses, revisions, abandoned utterances, and multisyllable word and phrase repetitions), stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD; i.e., sound and syllable repetitions, monosyllable word repetitions, prolongations, blocks, and broken words), and atypical disfluencies (AD; i.e., word-final prolongations and repetitions and atypical insertions). Method: Thirty-two autistic young adults and 35 controls completed a narrative telling task based on socially complex events. Frequencies of total disfluencies, TD, SLD, AD and stuttering severity were compared between groups. Results: The overall frequency of disfluencies was significantly higher in the autistic group and significant between-group differences were found for all disfluency categories. The autistic group produced significantly more revisions, filled pauses, and abandoned utterances, and each subtype of SLD and AD than the control group. In total, approximately every fourth autistic participants scored at least a very mild severity of stuttering, and every fifth produced more than three SLD per 100 syllables. Conclusions: Disfluent speech can be challenging for effective communication. This study revealed that the speech of autistic young adults was highly more disfluent than that of the controls. The findings provide information on speech disfluency characteristics in autistic young adults and highlight the importance of evaluating speech disfluency with a wide-range disfluency classification in autistic persons in order to understand their role in overall communication. The results of this study offer tools for SLPs to evaluate and understand the nature of disfluencies in autistic persons. </jats:sec

Sex/gender differences in speech disfluencies in autistic and non-austistic young adults

Introduction: The sex/gender difference in the prevalence of autism spectrum is well recognized. Moreover, increased evidence suggests that autism spectrum may manifest differently in males and females which could lead to a diagnostic sex/gender bias. To fully understand the nature of autism spectrum, it is important to produce scientific information of autism spectrum in both sexes/genders. The aim of this study was to examine speech disfluencies in autistic and non-autistic young adults, and to compare disfluencies between males and females. Methods: The participant groups consisted of autistic males (n = 7), autistic females (n = 7), non-autistic males (n = 7), and non-autistic females (n = 7) aged 19–30 years. There were no group differences in age, general ability, and verbal comprehension. Speech disfluencies were analyzed from a narrative speech sample and categorized as typical, stuttering-like, and atypical disfluencies, which further formed the total disfluency frequency (e.g., Scaler Scott et al., 2014). Non-parametric statistical tests were used for group comparisons. Results: Preliminary results showed that on average, males had higher frequency of each disfluency types when compared to females in both groups, however, statistically significant between-group differences were not detected. The autistic males produced significantly more typical and stuttering-like disfluencies than the non-autistic males or females. The autistic females produced significantly more stuttering-like disfluencies than the non-autistic females, but no other differences were observed. There were no significant differences in disfluencies between autistic females and non-autistic males. Discussion: The mean disfluency profiles of the groups indicate a continuum in which the non-autistic females locate in the one end having the lowest disfluency frequency, and the autistic males locate in the other end having the highest disfluency frequency. The autistic females and the non-autistic males locate somewhere between those ends. The results support the conception that autism spectrum could manifest differently in males and females. This study was funded by the Academy of Finland, Eudaimonia, A. and K. A. Snellman Foundation, Oskar Öflund’s Foundation, the Olvi Foundation, the Anna Vuorio Fund, and the Finnish Brain Foundation. The authors declare no conflict of interests

Tunnekuvausten sukupuolierot autismikirjon ja verrokkiryhmän nuorten aikuisten kerronnassa

Abstrakti Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on saatu ristiriitaisia tuloksia autismikirjon naisten ja miesten tavasta orientoitua sosiaalisiin tilanteisiin, tulkita niitä ja kertoa niistä. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastelimme, kuinka autismikirjon naiset (n = 7) ja miehet (n = 24) ja verrokkiryhmän naiset (n = 11) ja miehet (n = 24) kuvaavat sosiopragmaattisesti monimutkaisissa videoleikkeissä esiintyvien henkilöiden tunteita. Tarkastelimme tutkittavien vapaata kerrontaa keskittyen siihen, kuinka paljon tutkittavat tuottivat suoria ja epäsuoria tunnekuvauksia sekä missä määrin he taustoittivat tunnekuvauksiaan. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin verrokkiryhmän naisten ja autismikirjon naisten tuottavan enemmän epäsuoria tunnekuvauksia kuin autismikirjon miesten. Lisäksi autismikirjon miesten, mutta ei naisten, havaittiin taustoittavan tunnekuvauksiaan vähemmän kuin verrokkiryhmän naisten ja verrokkiryhmän miesten. Verrokkiryhmän naiset ja verrokkiryhmän miehet eivät eronneet toisistaan suorien tai epäsuorien tunnekuvausten määrässä tai tunnekuvausten taustoittamisessa. Tulokset kannustavat kiinnittämään huomiota sukupuolierojen tarkasteluun, jotta autismikirjon naisia ja autismikirjon miehiä voidaan sekä tunnistaa paremmin että tukea kohdennetummin

Analysing inclusive groups’ peer interactions using mobile eye tracking in educational context

Abstract Research abounds on deploying interventions to support peer interactions between children on the autism spectrum (AS) and neurotypical children [1‐2]. Technological advancements such as eye tracking devices have provided ample affordances to the field of autism research in terms of facilitating the collection of insightful data related to the gaze-based interaction behaviour of children on the AS [3]. Yet, further empirical understanding on how children interact within inclusive educational contexts is needed [4]. Addressing this gap, we present our research study set in a naturalistic inclusive school environment in which small groups of three children interact playing a boardgame, Alias, while wearing mobile eye tracking glasses. Alias is a word game during which a person guesses the word that another person is explaining by giving them hints and tips. In our study, we analysed the game play by focusing on 3 roles: an explainer, as the person giving clues for a guesser to guess what the word was, while an observer watched the interactions. 25 children (age 10‐12 years, 4th ‐ 5th grade, 15 males) from 3 different schools in Finland participated in the study. For data analysis, 2 categories were used: children with no diagnosis (n=19) and children on the autism spectrum (AS) (n=6). 43 data collection sessions of about 45 minutes each were carried out. Each session was set so that a small inclusive group of 3 children, each wearing mobile eye tracking glasses (Tobii Glasses 2), engaged for 10 minutes in a ludative task planned by the researchers and for 25 minutes in a curricular task planned by the teacher. Here we present the analysis of 9 sessions during which Alias was used. The mobile eye tracking glasses data collected was coded using Tobii Pro Lab. We analysed the children’s gaze behaviour from the perspective of the role taken, focusing on the proportion of time that the children spent looking at three areas of interest: other children’s faces, the task (i.e., the table where the game cards were placed) and the surrounding environment area. The statistical analysis of the coded data (i.e., areas of interests) was carried out using SPSS, and within-group comparisons were conducted with related samples Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by ranks, with Dunn’s pairwise post hoc test with Bonferroni correction. Results show promising insights on the gaze-based interactions behaviour of children on the AS when compared with neurotypical peers, including a perceived sensitivity to the requirements of the game roles that they play. Our work contributes towards empirical research implementations of mobile eye tracking glasses to understand natural peer interactions in inclusive educational environments. The insights obtained could support teachers’ classroom practices to foster children’s collaborative work in inclusive educational contexts