This article elucidates the unfolding of 3 phases of cognitive development through which typical ... more This article elucidates the unfolding of 3 phases of cognitive development through which typical children move during the first 2 years of life to illuminate the interrelationships among early cognition, communicative intention, and word-learning strategies. The resulting theoretical framework makes clear the developmental prerequisites for social communication and sheds light on how some children with autism spectrum disorder can learn words and phrases but fail to develop true social language. This framework is then applied to a case example of a child called Henry, using data from 10-min videos of clinician-child interaction that were collected each week to evaluate the child's progress in social communication while working with his graduate-student clinician. Eye-tracking data also were collected as an indirect measure of eye contact. The data showed that Henry made progress in social engagement, reciprocal verbal interactions, and diversity of communicative intentions. In addition, eye-tracking data suggested an increase in eye contact commensurate with a typical age mate. Implications for social communication intervention are discussed.
Background & Aims Early gesture plays an important role in prelinguistic/emerging linguis... more Background & Aims Early gesture plays an important role in prelinguistic/emerging linguistic communication and may provide insight into a child's social communication skills before the emergence of spoken language. Social interactionist theories suggest children learn to gesture through daily interactions with their social environment (e.g., their parents). As such, it is important to understand how parents gesture within interactions with their children when studying child gesture. Parents of typically developing (TD) children exhibit cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate. Correlations between parent and child gesture rates arise prior to the first birthday, although TD children at this developmental level do not yet consistently exhibit the same cross-racial/ethnic differences as their parents. While these relationships have been explored in TD children, less is known about the gesture production of young autistic children and their parents. Further, studies of autistic children have historically been conducted with predominantly White, English-speaking participants. As a result, there is little data regarding the gesture production of young autistic children and their parents from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. In the present study, we examined the gesture rates of racially/ethnically diverse autistic children and their parents. Specifically, we explored (1) cross-racial/ethnic differences in the gesture rate of parents of autistic children, (2) the correlation between parent and child gesture rates, and (3) cross-racial/ethnic differences in the gesture rates of autistic children. Methods Participants were 77 racially/ethnically diverse cognitively and linguistically impaired autistic children (age 18 to 57 months) and a parent who participated in one of two larger intervention studies. Naturalistic parent–child and structured clinician–child interactions were video recorded at baseline. Parent and child gesture rate (number of gestures produced per 10 min) were extracted from these recordings. Results (1) Parents exhibited cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate such that Hispanic parents gestured more frequently than Black/African American parents, replicating previous findings in parents of TD children. Further, South Asian parents gestured more than Black/African American parents. (2) The gesture rate of autistic children was not correlated with parent gesture, a finding that differs from TD children of a similar developmental level. (3) Autistic children did not exhibit the same cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate as their parents, a result consistent with findings from TD children. Conclusions Parents of autistic children—like parents of TD children—exhibit cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate. However, parent and child gesture rates were not related in the present study. Thus, while parents of autistic children from different ethnic/racial backgrounds appear to be conveying differences in gestural communication to their children, these differences are not yet evident in child gesture. Implications Our findings enhance our understanding of the early gesture production of racially/ethnically diverse autistic children in the prelinguistic/emerging linguistic stage of development, as well as the role of parent gesture. More research is needed with developmentally more advanced autistic children, as these relationships may change with development.
Purpose: This research aimed to evaluate evidence of Pathways parent-mediated early autism interv... more Purpose: This research aimed to evaluate evidence of Pathways parent-mediated early autism intervention as a culturally and linguistically sensitive intervention (CLSI) for Hispanic families with autistic children. Methods: We used Bernal et al.'s ecologically valid (EV) framework to evaluate current practice and Hispanic parents' perceptions of Pathways 1 ½ years after completing the intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Nineteen parents were contacted, of which 11 completed a semi-structured interview about their experience with Pathways. Results: On average, the group that completed the interview was less educated, had more monolingual Spanish speakers, and rated their general experience with the intervention slightly more positively than those who did not agree to complete the interview. A review of Pathways's current practices through the lens of the EV framework suggested that Pathways was a CLSI for Hispanic participants in the domains of context, methods, language, and persons. Parental interviews echoed these strengths. However, Pathways did less well balancing evidence-based intervention strategies for autistic children with the heritage value of respeto. Conclusion: Pathways demonstrated strengths regarding cultural and linguistic sensitivity for Hispanic families with young autistic children. Future work with our community stakeholder group will integrate heritage and majority culture perspectives to strengthen Pathways as a CLSI.
We reexamined the efficacy of Pathways early autism intervention using generalized measures of so... more We reexamined the efficacy of Pathways early autism intervention using generalized measures of social communication and language skills administered by an unfamiliar adult in a novel environment. Generalized measures improve on sources of measurement bias. Sixty-seven autistic children blocked on age (under versus over 3 years) were randomly assigned to 15 weeks of Pathways or services-as-usual. Age moderated the effects of Pathways for social communication. Specifically, Pathways had a significantly large effect for children under 3 and a small effect that approached significance for children over 3. Pathways also had a small effect on expressive speech/language skills. Results replicate previous findings of the efficacy of Pathways on proximal and distal skills and support the importance of early intervention.
Background and aimsThe quality of parent verbal input—diverse vocabulary that is well-matched to ... more Background and aimsThe quality of parent verbal input—diverse vocabulary that is well-matched to the child’s developmental level within interactions that are responsive to their interests—has been ...
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1999
This longitudinal parallel case study followed the development of pragmatic accomplishments and v... more This longitudinal parallel case study followed the development of pragmatic accomplishments and vocabulary development in five children with autism from the prelinguistic to early one-word stage of language. As would be expected, there was considerable variability in the rates of vocabulary acquisition across the five children. Qualitative analyses suggested that rate of vocabulary acquisition was associated with both type and diversity of pragmatic skills. This preliminary investigation lends support to the hypothesis that not all pragmatic accomplishments are related to language outcomes in precisely the same way.
Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 2014
Narrative assessment is a valid means for evaluating social pragmatic skills in high-functioning ... more Narrative assessment is a valid means for evaluating social pragmatic skills in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) typically analyze fictional narratives because of their strong association with school success. A review of literature suggests that high-functioning individuals with ASD have more difficulties telling personal narratives than fictional narrative. Because problems telling personal narratives may negatively impact social relationships, we suggest evaluating personal narratives to aide intervention planning. We review the elicitation and analysis procedure for personal narratives described in McCabe & Rollins (1994) and make suggestions for intervention.
Auditory information ascends through the brainstem to the cerebral cortices in two parallel pathw... more Auditory information ascends through the brainstem to the cerebral cortices in two parallel pathways, known as the classical and the non-classical ascending auditory pathways. The importance of the non-classical auditory pathway for hearing in humans is unknown but its subcortical connection to limbic structures may be important in tinnitus. In this study we show evidence that non-classical pathways are involved in loudness perception in young individuals but not in adults. We used the fact that some neurons in the non-classical auditory pathways receive somatosensory input and we determined the effect on loudness perception of monaural sounds from electrical stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist. Stimulation of the somatosensory system had the greatest effect on loudness perception in the youngest children that we studied (7-8 years) and the effect was minimal for individuals above 20 years of age. The effect was an increase in loudness in 20 of the 40 individuals we studied and a decrease in 4 individuals; 16 experienced no noticeable change in loudness during somatosensory stimulation.
Describing speakers' repertoires of communicative intents and rules for expressing those intents ... more Describing speakers' repertoires of communicative intents and rules for expressing those intents is crucial to any complete description of the language capacity. Many different systems for classifying speakers' communicative intents have been developed and used in research analyzing both the acquisition of speech acts and the nature of the communicative deficits shown by various language-impaired populations. We argue, though. that these systems have typically been limited in scope, in applicability across the full developmental range, or in their theoretical foundations. The criteria for an adequate system for analyzing communicative intents are discussed. and a system proposed which meets those criteria.
In this study, the author investigated narrative performances of 10 high-functioning young adults... more In this study, the author investigated narrative performances of 10 high-functioning young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) across personal and storybook narratives. Narratives were elicited with genre-specific procedures and then transcribed and scored using the narrative scoring scheme (NSS). One-tailed paired-sample t tests were conducted on four variables, for which the standard mean difference between the genres (NSS Total Score, Introduction, Conclusion, and Mental States) was large. To avoid inflating Type I error, an alpha of .012 was set. Results indicated that, on average, high-functioning adults with ASD had poorer quality personal narratives for NSS Total Score, Mental States, and Conclusion. This suggests that many high-functioning adults with ASD have difficulty in expressing how they feel and often neglect to conclude and make sense of their experiences in a social context. Telling personal narratives is an important skill for high-functioning adults with A...
This prospective longitudinal study examined the relationship between caregiver input to 9-month-... more This prospective longitudinal study examined the relationship between caregiver input to 9-month-old infants and their subsequent language. Mother–infant dyads were videotaped at ages 9, 12, and 30 months. Language comprehension (at 12 and 18 months) was measured by parent report and correlated with an independent language measure. Three maternal style variables were reduced from the 9-month data. Only caregivers' contingent comments (CCC) related to infants' later language. These findings held after infants' skill with coordinated joint attention (CJA) was taken into account. The total number of words the mothers used when their infants were 9 months predicted vocabulary; however, the predictive power was encapsulated in the words the mother used during CCC. Because studies have typically examined maternal input once infants' CJA has emerged, this work contributes to current efforts to understand variations in early language development.
This study investigates three aspects of social communication in 12-month-old infants and their c... more This study investigates three aspects of social communication in 12-month-old infants and their caregivers: (a) caregiver conversational style, (b) caregiver gesture, and (c) infant engagement. Differences in caregiver behavior during passive joint engagement were associated with language outcomes. Although total mean duration of infant time in passive joint engagement was negatively associated with later language, caregiver contingent comments (CCCs) addressed to infants during passive joint engagements related to language learning. CCC utterances were found to co-occur with gesture, suggesting that CCC is an inherently multimodal conversational style. The positive association between CCCs during passive joint engagements and later language suggests that caregiver behavior is important, even at times when infants are not actively engaged with the caregiver.
Compared to other media, natural language text presents unique challenges for information hiding.... more Compared to other media, natural language text presents unique challenges for information hiding. These challenges require the design of a robust algorithm that can work under following constraints: (i) low embedding bandwidth, i.e., number of sentences is comparable with message length, (ii) not all transformations can be applied to a given sentence (iii) the number of alternative forms for a sentence is relatively small, a limitation governed by the grammar and vocabulary of the natural language, as well as the requirement to preserve the style and fluency of the document. The adversary can carry out all the transformations used for embedding to remove the embedded message. In addition, the adversary can also permute the sentences, select and use a subset of sentences, and insert new sentences. We give a scheme that overcomes these challenges, together with a partial implementation and its evaluation for the English language. The present application of this scheme works at the sentence level while also using a word-level watermarking technique that was recently designed and built into a fully automatic system ("Equimark"). Unlike Equimark, whose resilience relied on the introduction of ambiguities, the present paper's sentence-level technique is more tuned to situations where very little change to the text is allowable (i.e., when style is important). Secondarily, this paper shows how to use lower-level (in this case word-level) marking to improve the resilience and embedding properties of higher level (in this case sentence level) schemes. We achieve this by using the word-based methods as a separate channel from the sentence-based methods, thereby improving the results of either one alone. The sentence level watermarking technique we introduce is novel and powerful, as it relies on
The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences offers graduate preparation at the master's and d... more The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences offers graduate preparation at the master's and doctoral levels designed to meet the needs of students with both research and professional objectives. With instruction and mentoring from internationally recognized faculty, the school's programs emphasize multidisciplinary training coupled with opportunities for intensive research and clinical experiences. The school's degree programs draw upon three clusters of expertise: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Cognition and Neuroscience, and Psychological Sciences. The Callier Center for Communication Disorders-Dallas, Callier-Richardson, the Center for BrainHealth, the Center for Vital Longevity, and the Center for Children and Families, all large comprehensive clinical, research, and community service facilities, further enrich the training of graduate students.
We examined the relationship between initial parenting stress and change in parental responsivity... more We examined the relationship between initial parenting stress and change in parental responsivity for 56 culturally and socioeconomically diverse families in a 12 week randomized control trial of Pathways Early ASD Intervention. Families were randomized into the Pathways (n = 32) or treatment-as-usual (TAU n = 24) group. Overall, Pathways parents experienced decreased stress, while TAU parents experienced an increase. The relationship between initial parental stress and change in parent responsivity was moderated by group membership. Pathways parents became more responsive but responsivity was not influenced by initial parental stress. In contrast, responsivity was negatively affected by initial parenting stress in the TAU group. Results are discussed in terms of components of a parent-mediated ASD intervention that may reduce parental stress.
This article elucidates the unfolding of 3 phases of cognitive development through which typical ... more This article elucidates the unfolding of 3 phases of cognitive development through which typical children move during the first 2 years of life to illuminate the interrelationships among early cognition, communicative intention, and word-learning strategies. The resulting theoretical framework makes clear the developmental prerequisites for social communication and sheds light on how some children with autism spectrum disorder can learn words and phrases but fail to develop true social language. This framework is then applied to a case example of a child called Henry, using data from 10-min videos of clinician-child interaction that were collected each week to evaluate the child's progress in social communication while working with his graduate-student clinician. Eye-tracking data also were collected as an indirect measure of eye contact. The data showed that Henry made progress in social engagement, reciprocal verbal interactions, and diversity of communicative intentions. In addition, eye-tracking data suggested an increase in eye contact commensurate with a typical age mate. Implications for social communication intervention are discussed.
Background & Aims Early gesture plays an important role in prelinguistic/emerging linguis... more Background & Aims Early gesture plays an important role in prelinguistic/emerging linguistic communication and may provide insight into a child's social communication skills before the emergence of spoken language. Social interactionist theories suggest children learn to gesture through daily interactions with their social environment (e.g., their parents). As such, it is important to understand how parents gesture within interactions with their children when studying child gesture. Parents of typically developing (TD) children exhibit cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate. Correlations between parent and child gesture rates arise prior to the first birthday, although TD children at this developmental level do not yet consistently exhibit the same cross-racial/ethnic differences as their parents. While these relationships have been explored in TD children, less is known about the gesture production of young autistic children and their parents. Further, studies of autistic children have historically been conducted with predominantly White, English-speaking participants. As a result, there is little data regarding the gesture production of young autistic children and their parents from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. In the present study, we examined the gesture rates of racially/ethnically diverse autistic children and their parents. Specifically, we explored (1) cross-racial/ethnic differences in the gesture rate of parents of autistic children, (2) the correlation between parent and child gesture rates, and (3) cross-racial/ethnic differences in the gesture rates of autistic children. Methods Participants were 77 racially/ethnically diverse cognitively and linguistically impaired autistic children (age 18 to 57 months) and a parent who participated in one of two larger intervention studies. Naturalistic parent–child and structured clinician–child interactions were video recorded at baseline. Parent and child gesture rate (number of gestures produced per 10 min) were extracted from these recordings. Results (1) Parents exhibited cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate such that Hispanic parents gestured more frequently than Black/African American parents, replicating previous findings in parents of TD children. Further, South Asian parents gestured more than Black/African American parents. (2) The gesture rate of autistic children was not correlated with parent gesture, a finding that differs from TD children of a similar developmental level. (3) Autistic children did not exhibit the same cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate as their parents, a result consistent with findings from TD children. Conclusions Parents of autistic children—like parents of TD children—exhibit cross-racial/ethnic differences in gesture rate. However, parent and child gesture rates were not related in the present study. Thus, while parents of autistic children from different ethnic/racial backgrounds appear to be conveying differences in gestural communication to their children, these differences are not yet evident in child gesture. Implications Our findings enhance our understanding of the early gesture production of racially/ethnically diverse autistic children in the prelinguistic/emerging linguistic stage of development, as well as the role of parent gesture. More research is needed with developmentally more advanced autistic children, as these relationships may change with development.
Purpose: This research aimed to evaluate evidence of Pathways parent-mediated early autism interv... more Purpose: This research aimed to evaluate evidence of Pathways parent-mediated early autism intervention as a culturally and linguistically sensitive intervention (CLSI) for Hispanic families with autistic children. Methods: We used Bernal et al.'s ecologically valid (EV) framework to evaluate current practice and Hispanic parents' perceptions of Pathways 1 ½ years after completing the intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Nineteen parents were contacted, of which 11 completed a semi-structured interview about their experience with Pathways. Results: On average, the group that completed the interview was less educated, had more monolingual Spanish speakers, and rated their general experience with the intervention slightly more positively than those who did not agree to complete the interview. A review of Pathways's current practices through the lens of the EV framework suggested that Pathways was a CLSI for Hispanic participants in the domains of context, methods, language, and persons. Parental interviews echoed these strengths. However, Pathways did less well balancing evidence-based intervention strategies for autistic children with the heritage value of respeto. Conclusion: Pathways demonstrated strengths regarding cultural and linguistic sensitivity for Hispanic families with young autistic children. Future work with our community stakeholder group will integrate heritage and majority culture perspectives to strengthen Pathways as a CLSI.
We reexamined the efficacy of Pathways early autism intervention using generalized measures of so... more We reexamined the efficacy of Pathways early autism intervention using generalized measures of social communication and language skills administered by an unfamiliar adult in a novel environment. Generalized measures improve on sources of measurement bias. Sixty-seven autistic children blocked on age (under versus over 3 years) were randomly assigned to 15 weeks of Pathways or services-as-usual. Age moderated the effects of Pathways for social communication. Specifically, Pathways had a significantly large effect for children under 3 and a small effect that approached significance for children over 3. Pathways also had a small effect on expressive speech/language skills. Results replicate previous findings of the efficacy of Pathways on proximal and distal skills and support the importance of early intervention.
Background and aimsThe quality of parent verbal input—diverse vocabulary that is well-matched to ... more Background and aimsThe quality of parent verbal input—diverse vocabulary that is well-matched to the child’s developmental level within interactions that are responsive to their interests—has been ...
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1999
This longitudinal parallel case study followed the development of pragmatic accomplishments and v... more This longitudinal parallel case study followed the development of pragmatic accomplishments and vocabulary development in five children with autism from the prelinguistic to early one-word stage of language. As would be expected, there was considerable variability in the rates of vocabulary acquisition across the five children. Qualitative analyses suggested that rate of vocabulary acquisition was associated with both type and diversity of pragmatic skills. This preliminary investigation lends support to the hypothesis that not all pragmatic accomplishments are related to language outcomes in precisely the same way.
Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 2014
Narrative assessment is a valid means for evaluating social pragmatic skills in high-functioning ... more Narrative assessment is a valid means for evaluating social pragmatic skills in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) typically analyze fictional narratives because of their strong association with school success. A review of literature suggests that high-functioning individuals with ASD have more difficulties telling personal narratives than fictional narrative. Because problems telling personal narratives may negatively impact social relationships, we suggest evaluating personal narratives to aide intervention planning. We review the elicitation and analysis procedure for personal narratives described in McCabe & Rollins (1994) and make suggestions for intervention.
Auditory information ascends through the brainstem to the cerebral cortices in two parallel pathw... more Auditory information ascends through the brainstem to the cerebral cortices in two parallel pathways, known as the classical and the non-classical ascending auditory pathways. The importance of the non-classical auditory pathway for hearing in humans is unknown but its subcortical connection to limbic structures may be important in tinnitus. In this study we show evidence that non-classical pathways are involved in loudness perception in young individuals but not in adults. We used the fact that some neurons in the non-classical auditory pathways receive somatosensory input and we determined the effect on loudness perception of monaural sounds from electrical stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist. Stimulation of the somatosensory system had the greatest effect on loudness perception in the youngest children that we studied (7-8 years) and the effect was minimal for individuals above 20 years of age. The effect was an increase in loudness in 20 of the 40 individuals we studied and a decrease in 4 individuals; 16 experienced no noticeable change in loudness during somatosensory stimulation.
Describing speakers' repertoires of communicative intents and rules for expressing those intents ... more Describing speakers' repertoires of communicative intents and rules for expressing those intents is crucial to any complete description of the language capacity. Many different systems for classifying speakers' communicative intents have been developed and used in research analyzing both the acquisition of speech acts and the nature of the communicative deficits shown by various language-impaired populations. We argue, though. that these systems have typically been limited in scope, in applicability across the full developmental range, or in their theoretical foundations. The criteria for an adequate system for analyzing communicative intents are discussed. and a system proposed which meets those criteria.
In this study, the author investigated narrative performances of 10 high-functioning young adults... more In this study, the author investigated narrative performances of 10 high-functioning young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) across personal and storybook narratives. Narratives were elicited with genre-specific procedures and then transcribed and scored using the narrative scoring scheme (NSS). One-tailed paired-sample t tests were conducted on four variables, for which the standard mean difference between the genres (NSS Total Score, Introduction, Conclusion, and Mental States) was large. To avoid inflating Type I error, an alpha of .012 was set. Results indicated that, on average, high-functioning adults with ASD had poorer quality personal narratives for NSS Total Score, Mental States, and Conclusion. This suggests that many high-functioning adults with ASD have difficulty in expressing how they feel and often neglect to conclude and make sense of their experiences in a social context. Telling personal narratives is an important skill for high-functioning adults with A...
This prospective longitudinal study examined the relationship between caregiver input to 9-month-... more This prospective longitudinal study examined the relationship between caregiver input to 9-month-old infants and their subsequent language. Mother–infant dyads were videotaped at ages 9, 12, and 30 months. Language comprehension (at 12 and 18 months) was measured by parent report and correlated with an independent language measure. Three maternal style variables were reduced from the 9-month data. Only caregivers' contingent comments (CCC) related to infants' later language. These findings held after infants' skill with coordinated joint attention (CJA) was taken into account. The total number of words the mothers used when their infants were 9 months predicted vocabulary; however, the predictive power was encapsulated in the words the mother used during CCC. Because studies have typically examined maternal input once infants' CJA has emerged, this work contributes to current efforts to understand variations in early language development.
This study investigates three aspects of social communication in 12-month-old infants and their c... more This study investigates three aspects of social communication in 12-month-old infants and their caregivers: (a) caregiver conversational style, (b) caregiver gesture, and (c) infant engagement. Differences in caregiver behavior during passive joint engagement were associated with language outcomes. Although total mean duration of infant time in passive joint engagement was negatively associated with later language, caregiver contingent comments (CCCs) addressed to infants during passive joint engagements related to language learning. CCC utterances were found to co-occur with gesture, suggesting that CCC is an inherently multimodal conversational style. The positive association between CCCs during passive joint engagements and later language suggests that caregiver behavior is important, even at times when infants are not actively engaged with the caregiver.
Compared to other media, natural language text presents unique challenges for information hiding.... more Compared to other media, natural language text presents unique challenges for information hiding. These challenges require the design of a robust algorithm that can work under following constraints: (i) low embedding bandwidth, i.e., number of sentences is comparable with message length, (ii) not all transformations can be applied to a given sentence (iii) the number of alternative forms for a sentence is relatively small, a limitation governed by the grammar and vocabulary of the natural language, as well as the requirement to preserve the style and fluency of the document. The adversary can carry out all the transformations used for embedding to remove the embedded message. In addition, the adversary can also permute the sentences, select and use a subset of sentences, and insert new sentences. We give a scheme that overcomes these challenges, together with a partial implementation and its evaluation for the English language. The present application of this scheme works at the sentence level while also using a word-level watermarking technique that was recently designed and built into a fully automatic system ("Equimark"). Unlike Equimark, whose resilience relied on the introduction of ambiguities, the present paper's sentence-level technique is more tuned to situations where very little change to the text is allowable (i.e., when style is important). Secondarily, this paper shows how to use lower-level (in this case word-level) marking to improve the resilience and embedding properties of higher level (in this case sentence level) schemes. We achieve this by using the word-based methods as a separate channel from the sentence-based methods, thereby improving the results of either one alone. The sentence level watermarking technique we introduce is novel and powerful, as it relies on
The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences offers graduate preparation at the master's and d... more The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences offers graduate preparation at the master's and doctoral levels designed to meet the needs of students with both research and professional objectives. With instruction and mentoring from internationally recognized faculty, the school's programs emphasize multidisciplinary training coupled with opportunities for intensive research and clinical experiences. The school's degree programs draw upon three clusters of expertise: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Cognition and Neuroscience, and Psychological Sciences. The Callier Center for Communication Disorders-Dallas, Callier-Richardson, the Center for BrainHealth, the Center for Vital Longevity, and the Center for Children and Families, all large comprehensive clinical, research, and community service facilities, further enrich the training of graduate students.
We examined the relationship between initial parenting stress and change in parental responsivity... more We examined the relationship between initial parenting stress and change in parental responsivity for 56 culturally and socioeconomically diverse families in a 12 week randomized control trial of Pathways Early ASD Intervention. Families were randomized into the Pathways (n = 32) or treatment-as-usual (TAU n = 24) group. Overall, Pathways parents experienced decreased stress, while TAU parents experienced an increase. The relationship between initial parental stress and change in parent responsivity was moderated by group membership. Pathways parents became more responsive but responsivity was not influenced by initial parental stress. In contrast, responsivity was negatively affected by initial parenting stress in the TAU group. Results are discussed in terms of components of a parent-mediated ASD intervention that may reduce parental stress.
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Papers by Pamela Rollins