Assessment and treatment of social orienting and social referencing in children with autism

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2015

First Committee Member

MacDonald, Rebecca

Second Committee Member

Ahearn, William H.

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel H.

Abstract

"Children with autism show a marked deficit in social skills, including both social orienting and social referencing responses. The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, experimenters sought to evaluate the differences in social orienting and social referencing responses across four typically developing toddlers and six children with autism, and secondly experimenters sought to evaluate a treatment protocol for teaching orienting and referencing. An adaptation of the Sigman’s attention to distress assessment was used, which included three conditions: hurt, choke, and spill (Sigman, Kasari, Kwon, & Yirmiya, 1992). Results showed that typical peers oriented and referenced during a greater percent of opportunities than did children with autism. Further analysis revealed differences in the quality of these responses including latency, duration, and frequency. One participant was taught to orient to an adult under a condition of distress (e.g., hurt) and then to reference a familiar adult following the orienting response. Findings indicated that the use of visual prompts and social reinforcers were effective in establishing social orienting and social referencing. Considerations for the generalization and maintenance of these skills are discussed."

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