Oral Language Development in Children: The Importance of Social-Emotional Precursors

1. Oral Language Development in Children: The Importance of Social-Emotional Precursors Kimberly Frazier Baker, PhD, CCC-SLP University of Arkansas

2. Intersubjectivity • In typically developing children, intersubjectivity emerges in infancy and toddlerhood , as evidenced by sharing affect, following and initiating joint attention, imitation, understanding others preferences and intentions ( Trevarthen & Hubley , 1978; Meltzoff , 1995; Tomasello , 1998, Hubley, Meltzoff, Tomasello) • “Self-Other Mapping” • The newborn is not a “social isolate” these skills provide a bridge connecting self and other.

3. Intersubjectivity starts with: • Sharing affect • Joint Attention • Imitation

4. Shared Affect • Mother tickles and the infant laughs, mother is ready to tickle again, waiting for a smile, the infant smiles, mother tickles and the infant laughs again, and so on

5. Joint Attention Joint Attention is the process of sharing one’s experience of observing an object or event, by following gaze or pointing gestures.It is critical for social development, language acquisition, cognitive development.

6. The infant points to a toy, when looking to mother, mother takes the toy naming it, and gives it to the infant, who gives it back, and so on • The infant points to a doll, when looking to mother, mother takes the doll, saying ‘‘Let’s comb her hair’’, the infants looks for the comb, gives it to mother, and so on

7. Joint Attention • “If I’m looking at something, I’m thinking about it” • Games such as “I spy”

8. Imitation • Impairment in the ability to imitate another person’s movements • Mirror neurons • Baby imitation studies • Imitation training is an integral part of many treatment program from ABA to Floortime.

9. Meltzoff, 1977 “Infants between 12 and 21 days of age can imitate both facial and manual gestures; this behavior cannot be explained in terms of either conditioning or innate releasing mechanisms. Such imitation implies that human neonates can equate their own unseen behaviors with gestures they see others perform”

10. Meltzoff, 1977

11. Meltzoff – Imitation • Deficits in imitation keeps the child from developing the “like-me” sense and thus the child cannot use imitation as a means for developing internal self/other correspondences for affect and mind.

12. Imitation Games • Infants love imitation games • Reciprocal imitative games provide the infant with special information about how they are like other people and how others are like them.

13. Mirror Neurons • Mirror neurons are brain cells in the premotor cortex. • First identified in monkeys in the early 1990s • neurons fire both when a monkey performs an action itself and when it observes another living creature perform that same action • Thought to be involved in higher order cognitive processes such as LANGUAGE • Helps us decode the intentions of others and develop empathy.

14. 1st Birthday • Video research • TDC will look at others for reassurance when cake is placed before them • Children later diagnosed with ASD will not

15. Theory of Mind • The ability to predict and explain human behavior in terms of mental states such as intentions, emotions, desires, beliefs and states of knowledge and ignorance (Astington, 1993) • Cognitive skill that typically develops around age 4-5yrs. • Around ages 3-5 children start making links between the behavior of others and their beliefs, intentions, and desires. • Understanding of words such as know, forget, remember, guess http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbQJms8F3x8&feature=PlayList&p=5543A1C13BBAAE02&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=90

16. First/Second Order False Belief Tasks • The Sally-Anne Test (Baron-Cohen, 1985) • 80% of ASD answered incorrectly- 86% with Downs answered correctly • What a person thinks about other peoples thoughts – “Fred believes that Suzie thinks…” (Happe, 1994) • TDC acquires Second order by age 6 • What other people think that other people think about their thoughts (higher order)

17. Poor Theory of Mind can Affect Social Performance in a Number of Ways • Individual may not realize they do not “fit in” or understand why they don’t • Individual may not correctly perceive situations • Individual may misread or miss social cues/responses of others • If individual misses social cues he will not appropriately act on the social responses of others.

18. Behaviors which suggest poor theory of mind • Comments that embarrass or offend – even if they are true “ you sure are fat!” • Inability to pick up on cues that suggest that our conversation partner is not interested in what we are saying • Wondering what other people are thinking and knowing that they have thoughts about what we are thinking • Inability to pick-up on facial expressions, body language, prosody • Inability to understand that our behavior affects how other people think and feel about us.

19. Increasing Perspective-Taking Ability • Whole Body Listening • Pantomine • Using Literature to Teach Social Awareness • Use words such as “think, feel, believe, hope, wonder”

20. Executive Functions • Mediated by the prefrontal cortex • “allow us to organize our behavior over time and override immediate demands in favor of longer-term goals” (Dawson & Guare, 2004) • How we plan and execute a goal Processing information Planning and organizing tasks Self-regulation Monitoring behavior using feedback

21. Executive Dysfunction – occurs in: • Autism • Schizophrenia • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder • Tourette Syndrome • Learning Disability • ADHD • Conduct Disorder • Parkinson’s Disease …and more

22. Aspects of Executive Functioning • Nonverbal Working Memory • Verbal Working Memory/Internalized Speech • Regulation of affect, arousal, motivation • Problem-Solving • Goal-Directed Behavior Barkley, 2005

23. Nonverbal Working Memory • Sense of time • Schema formation • Anticipatory set/hindsight • Forethought • Complex imitations

24. Verbal Working Memory/Internalized Speech • Rule-governed behavior • Reading comprehension • Moral reasoning

25. Regulation of affect, arousal, motivation • Emotional control • Perspective taking • Motivation/persistence

26. Inhibition • The ability to stop oneself from carrying out a “ready” response when that response is not adaptive Rogers and Bennetto, 2000

27. Cognitive Flexibility • Difficulty shifting attentional focus from one stimulus to another or from one idea to another. • Often results in perseveration of thoughts and actions like we see in individuals with frontal brain injury. Rogers and Bennetto, 2000

28. Behaviors indicative of executive dysfunction • Focus on “special topics” • Difficulty with transition between activities • Resistance to change • Repetitive language and motor behavior • Perseveration Meltzer, 2007

29. Working Memory • The simultaneous processing and storage of information during complex cognitive tasks • Big issue with Children with poor EF– affects everyday problem solving • Students need a variety of visual strategies to support sequencing, transitions, and task completion.

30. By 3rd grade • Curriculum is more challenging and there are greater expectations for students • Students with EF challenges will begin to exhibit frustration, inappropriate behavior, noncompliance and “meltdowns”. • These inappropriate behaviors are not malicious or manipulative but are associated with skill deficits.

31. Strategies to improve EF (Meltzer) • Memorization—When using acronyms to help students memorize information, the “crazier the phrase,” the better. If a student is non-verbal, then make a cartoon. • Cognitive Flexibility—To help students improve cognitive flexibility, work with riddles and jokes to help students shift between word meanings. In math, students can ask themselves: do I know another way to solve this problem, does this look similar to other problems I have seen, is this problem the same or different from the one before it? • Prioritizing—To help students prioritize information, teach students to listen to the teacher’s intonation during lectures. Also, students can highlight the most important ideas in a text in one color and details in another color. • Notetaking—To help students prioritize and remember information students can take 3-column notes: the first column contains one word that is the core concept, the second column contains the details supporting the concept, the third column contains the strategy the student will use to remember the information. When taking notes from text, students can use a 2-column approach. In the first column, students ask themselves questions about the text, and they put the answers in the second column. • Self-Monitoring and Self-Checking—Helping students check their work requires two processes: 1) Provide explicit checklists for assignments, so students know what to check for, and 2) Help students develop personalized checklists, so they become aware of and check for their most common errors. As a final step, students can make their own acronyms to remind themselves of their personal error traps.

32. Central Coherence • Definition: The ability to incorporate details into “the big picture”. • Ability to integrate information • Poor imagination • Restricted interests • Repetitive behavior • Focus on “the details” – Can’t see the forest for the trees… Uta Frith (1989)

33. Central Coherence Allows us to recognize the correct context for many common ambiguous words • meet-meat • Son-sun • Sew-so • Pear-pair

34. CEFT (Shah & Frith, 1983) • ASD averaged 21/25 embedded figures • TDC and Children with LD average 15/25

35. Kanizsa's triangle:

36. The Ebbinghaus Illusion ( Frith, 2003)

37. Wechsler Block Design Task (Frith, 2003) This subtest of the Wechsler is consistently found to be a test that ASD show superior performance relative to the other subtest

38. Weaknesses Associated with Central Coherence • Interpretation of any type of stimuli as far as obtaining the overall context and meaning • “In her eye was a big tear” vs. “In her dress there was a big tear”– ASD tend to give the most common production of these types of words

39. Together Weaknesses in TOM, EF, and CC, can result in issues with • Pragmatic (Social Language Performance) • Conflict Resolution • Difficulty repairing miscommunication • Negotiating • Dealing with sarcasm/irony • Presupposition • Conversation and narrative discourse • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMSSe7cOvA