The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is a promising early intervention for promoting improved social, cognitive, and communication outcomes for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most studies evaluating group-based delivery of this program have used 15-25 h per week of intervention in specialized ESDM preschools with low…

Purpose: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased risk of experiencing difficulties with the development of literacy, including the emergent literacy skills recognized to underpin conventional literacy success. Comprehensive assessment is essential. Characteristics of ASD can make assessment challenging, and this can be…

A growing number of research groups are now including older minimally verbal individuals with autism spectrum disorder in their studies to encompass the full range of heterogeneity in the population. There are numerous barriers that prevent researchers from collecting high-quality data from these individuals, in part because of the challenging…

Much research has been conducted on children's self-talk and its use to regulate thinking and behaviour, but research has typically been conducted on audible self-talk when undertaking specific tasks designed by researchers and in laboratory situations. Addressing the need to study self-talk in the classroom and by students of an age when…

There is uncertainty about the proportion of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not develop phrase speech during the preschool years. The main purpose of this study was to examine this ratio in a population-based community sample of children. The cohort consisted of 165 children (141 boys, 24 girls) with autism spectrum disorders aged…

Reviews aspects of the educational environment that impact on apprehensive students; examines the influence of task structure on student performance; and suggests ways structure can be used effectively to enhance communication competence among students at various need levels, specifically those with high or low communication apprehension. (JD)

The method of Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) incorporates aspects of both systematic direct observation and behavior rating scales to provide an efficient means to collect time series data. This study extended the development and evaluation of DBR Single-Item Scales (DBR-SIS) as a behavior assessment tool. Eighty-eight undergraduate students used…

The present study explored the effect of verbal dissembling on nonverbal behavior. Subjects were 146 females who were led to be either truthful or deceptive verbally to a confederate. The underlying affective state of the subjects and the publicness of the interaction between subject and confederate were also varied experimentally. The nonverbal…

Using a conformity research methodology, the authors investigated the questions of whether (a) the Asch-type conformity setting produces greater yielding than variant settings where subjects are screened from one another and (b) the nonverbal element of contradictory or inconsistent nonverbal communications significantly alters response to the…

A rating scale of verbal and nonverbal behaviors in employment interviews was developed and applied to simulated interviews involving former clients of a blind rehabilitation center. Personnel managers who rated the interviews perceived negative behaviors (e.g., rigid, motionless facial expression) as more important than positive behaviors (e.g.,…

The Classroom Communication Ease Scale was administered to 50 deaf college students. Fit of data to the measurement model resulted in a set of 42 items that empirically define the concept of "communication ease" in its cognitive aspects and a set of 21 items that elaborate the concept further in terms of its affective aspects. (Author/DB)

This study examines the degree of relationship of certain verbal protocol patterns of college resident counselors to the variables of Accurate Empathy and Warmth (Truax and Carkhuff). Findings suggest that more reflective, nonjudgmental counselors were rated as providing a better counseling relationship when the measures of the relationship were…

Described are scales of communicative interaction which can be used to evaluate children who are marginal communicators (such as the retarded, emotionally disturbed, or culturally deprived) by determining at what level the child uses interactive language in various situations. (LS)

Identifies characteristics of successful courtroom speech for prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, and accuseds using computer-based content analysis and rater judgments of verbal behaviors. Demonstrates that verbal aggression is an important factor for successful prosecutors, equivocation is important to success for defense attorneys, and…

The study investigated the relationship between those factors in individual supervisory conference behavior in speech-language pathology perceived to be effective and the verbal interaction/content variables of the conference, isolating the variables most important for further conference analysis and research. (Author/MC)