5 research outputs found
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Parenting Behaviors as Predictive of Early Student-Teacher Relationships in ASD
Student-teacher relationship (STR) quality during the early school years has important implications for student adjustment and outcomes. Studies with typically developing (TD) children have identified links between parent behaviors and STRs, but these connections remain unexplored for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study investigated relationships between observed parent behaviors during a shared literacy task and STRs one year later for 117 children (ages 4-7) with ASD. Children whose parents displayed more intrusiveness had poorer-quality STRs. Further, parent intrusiveness mediated the predictive relationship between child spoken language skills and STR quality. These results suggest that parent intrusiveness plays an important role in the development of STRs for young children with ASD. Implications for intervention and research are discussed
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The Impact of Positive, Supportive Classroom Environments for Young Autistic Children: Positive Reinforcement and Student-Teacher Relationships
Young students on the autism spectrum are at risk for poor social-emotional and behavioral functioning at school. Better quality student-teacher relationships (STRs) have been associated with improved student outcomes across social-emotional, behavioral, and academic domains. Teachers who use more positive reinforcement strategies may promote better student-teacher interactions and closer STRs that could mitigate some of this risk. The present study investigates a path by which teachers’ use of positive reinforcement strategies promotes closer STRs, which in turn lead to improved social-emotional and behavioral functioning in a sample of 145 young (age 4-7 years) autistic students. The model was a close fit (χ2 (18, N = 145) = 18.4, p = .43, TLI = 1.0, CFI = 1.0, RMSEA = .01), with teachers who reported using more positive reinforcement strategies having significantly closer STRs, and closer STRs significantly predicting student academic engagement, social skills, and social integration. Student outcomes in academic engagement and social integration persisted into the following school year. Strategies that teachers reported using most frequently were praising good behavior, commenting on good behavior, and rewarding good behavior with incentives. Factors contributing to teachers’ reported frequency of using positive reinforcement strategies were also explored. Of all teacher variables examined (e.g., years of experience, general education v. special education, perceived preparedness to teach autistic students), teachers’ perceived usefulness of positive reinforcement strategies and regular trainings in autism were the only significant contributors to frequency of positive reinforcement strategy use. Findings underscore the protective role that teachers’ use of positive reinforcement and close STRs plays for young autistic students, and highlight teachers’ perceived usefulness and regular trainings in autism as critical factors for implementation of positive reinforcement strategies
Recommended from our members
Parenting Behaviors as Predictive of Early Student-Teacher Relationships in ASD
Student-teacher relationship (STR) quality during the early school years has important implications for student adjustment and outcomes. Studies with typically developing (TD) children have identified links between parent behaviors and STRs, but these connections remain unexplored for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study investigated relationships between observed parent behaviors during a shared literacy task and STRs one year later for 117 children (ages 4-7) with ASD. Children whose parents displayed more intrusiveness had poorer-quality STRs. Further, parent intrusiveness mediated the predictive relationship between child spoken language skills and STR quality. These results suggest that parent intrusiveness plays an important role in the development of STRs for young children with ASD. Implications for intervention and research are discussed
General Education Teachers' Perceptions of Autism, Inclusive Practices, and Relationship Building Strategies.
To identify target areas for professional development, this mixed-methods study examined general education teachers' perceptions of autism and pedagogical practices in early elementary classrooms in the United States. In focus groups, teachers (N = 18) identified terms they associated with autism and strategies they used for inclusion and relationship building. Participants systematically free-listed and ranked their responses to three prompts. Using ranked responses, saliency scores were calculated to assess the perceived importance and frequency of responses. Teachers' most salient perceptions of autism (e.g., social difficulties, focused/fixed interests) revealed an awareness of core symptoms. Salient inclusion practices included assigning special classroom responsibilities and showcasing student talents; salient relationship-building strategies included embracing students' special interests and engaging in one-on-one time. Implications for teacher trainings are discussed
Classification of evoked responses to inverted faces reveals both spatial and temporal cortical response abnormalities in Autism spectrum disorder
The neurophysiology of face processing has been studied extensively in the context of social impairments associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the existing studies have concentrated mainly on univariate analyses of responses to upright faces, and, less frequently, inverted faces. The small number of existing studies on neurophysiological responses to inverted face in ASD have used univariate approaches, with divergent results. Here, we used a data-driven, classification-based, multivariate machine learning decoding approach to investigate the temporal and spatial properties of the neurophysiological evoked response for upright and inverted faces, relative to the neurophysiological evoked response for houses, a neutral stimulus. 21 (2 females) ASD and 29 (4 females) TD participants ages 7 to 19 took part in this study. Group level classification accuracies were obtained for each condition, using first the temporal domain of the evoked responses, and then the spatial distribution of the evoked responses on the cortical surface, each separately. We found that classification of responses to inverted neutral faces vs. houses was less accurate in ASD compared to TD, in both the temporal and spatial domains. In contrast, there were no group differences in the classification of evoked responses to upright neutral faces relative to houses. Using the classification in the temporal domain, lower decoding accuracies in ASD were found around 120 ms and 170 ms, corresponding the known components of the evoked responses to faces. Using the classification in the spatial domain, lower decoding accuracies in ASD were found in the right superior marginal gyrus (SMG), intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), but not in core face processing areas. Importantly, individual classification accuracies from both the temporal and spatial classifiers correlated with ASD severity, confirming the relevance of the results to the ASD phenotype.Peer reviewe