A Pediatric BCI Program for Children With Severe Neurological Disabilities: Thematic Analysis of Family Perspectives

Background: Children with severe physical disabilities and no expressive communication have few options for interaction and engagement with the world around them. There is a need for new technologies and programs dedicated to this population and brain computer interface (BCI) can provide new opportunities for independence. We established a novel, family-centered, clinical BCI program for cognitively capable children with severe disability. Here, we aimed to understand the potential impact on participants from the perspective of families to help guide program development and future modifications. Methods: Children in the program were aged 6-16 years with severe physical (non-ambulatory, minimal hand use) and communication disabilities and estimated grade 1 cognitive capacity. Parents and caregivers of participants were invited to complete semi-structured interviews to discuss their impressions and opinions of the program. Children were invited to complete a simpler “yes”/ “no” questionnaire about their experience and interests. Thematic analysis was performed according to established methods. Results: Seven parents/caregivers and 4 children from 6 families with nearly 300 hours of experience with the BCI program participated. Thematic analysis revealed that despite limited initial BCI knowledge, the program elicited positive emotional responses including feelings of enhanced independence, inclusion, and recognition for parents and children. Families were interested in contributing to BCI development to enhance their child’s future. Conclusions: Clinical BCI programs may have positive impacts on children with disabilities and their families. Continuous engagement of parents and children is imperative to create programs and technologies that will meet the needs of this population. Trial registration: The current study was approved by the University of Calgary Research Ethics Board, study ID:REB15-2567.

An Initial Investigation Into the Feasibility of the Communication Matrix Professional Development Program for Educational Professionals Working With Students With Complex Communication Needs

Purpose The goal of this study was to investigate the initial feasibility of the Communication Matrix Professional Development Program (CMPDP), an online program created to help educational professionals teaching students with complex communication needs. Method A one-group pretest–posttest design was employed with 102 educational professionals and their students with complex communication needs. Students ( M age = 12.5 years, SD = 4.8 years) had severe expressive communication impairments characterized by an expressive vocabulary of < 10 words. The online CMPDP included webinars, coursework, and engagement with an online community of practice. We examined the students' expressive communication skills measured by the Communication Matrix Assessment and Individualized Education Program (IEP) goal quality measured by the Design to Learn IEP Goal Development Guide before and after their teachers and speech-language pathologists participated in the intervention. Results Students showed small but significant increases on the Communication Matrix Assessment. The average increase in scores was 10.6, z = 5.37, 95% confidence interval (CI; [6.65, 14.54]), Glass's delta = 0.37. The mean gain in scores for IEP quality was not significant (0.82, z = 2.43, 95% CI [0.14, 1.49], Glass's delta = 0.28). Conclusions Results demonstrate the initial feasibility of the CMPDP for educational professionals and their students with complex communication needs. Findings must be interpreted cautiously as the study design has methodological limitations including lack of a control condition and a potential for correlated measurement error and demand characteristics. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16734553

IMPROVING LISTENER RESPONDING SKILL USING BEE-BOT® IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: CASE STUDY

Children with autism spectrum disorder may have a variety of communication deficits. Their communication difficulties include language delay, limited vocabulary, inability to speak words, echolalia or repetitive use of phonemes, words, or phrases, absence of eye-contact during communication, and poor non-verbal communication skills. Moreover, some of them are nonverbal so they have to learn how to communicate by using alternative and augmentative communication techniques. Some children on the spectrum in order to improve their receptive and expressive communication skills need to work on a highly structured therapeutic environment and others need to work on a natural environment. Educational robotics can be a successful tool for children on the spectrum in order to improve communicational skills. The main goal of this study is to implement Bee-Bot® robotic toy as a supportive tool for a child with autism in order to improve his listener responding skill across actions. The results showed that during speech and Applied Behavior Analysis intervention, the child improved his receptive skill in a more funny and educational way. Researchers identified that by using Bee-Bot®, the participant communicated intensively and participated to the activity more enthusiastically than using the traditional method of teaching at the table. Nevertheless, researchers should implement generalization and maintenance procedures to ensure that the participant will be able to apply the learned behavior and skill outside of the learning environment and continue to practice the acquired skill over time. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0781/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Emotion expression, empathic reception, and prosocial behavior

This chapter addresses facial expression and its potential for communication, a much-debated issue especially in regard to emotion expression. This expressive potential is thought to co-evolve with facial expression perception and to be critical in social life. Factors affecting the perception of human facial emotion have been explored over the last few decades and they encompass sender and context features, as well as the decoder’s traits. One of the most neglected traits is that of the decoder’s empathy. The co-evolution of emotion signaling, emotion perception, and emotion expression regulation are, according to recent evidence, most certainly linked to empathy, particularly to the extremes of trait empathy—at one end, very poor decoders, and at the other end, higher than average emotion decoders. Studies on nonhuman primate expressive communication, empathy, and prosociality, and clues from the fossil record, may provide insights on the links between emotion expression, empathy and prosociality in human evolution.

Different Timing of Prenatal Organophosphate Pesticides Exposure Is Influenced Different Aspects of Infant Developmental Performance

Organophosphate (OP) pesticides can transfer from mother to fetus via the placenta and amniotic fluid and may affect the development of infants. This study aims to evaluate the associations between maternal OP concentrations collected in the 1st–2nd trimester and the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and the infant developmental performance. The Screening Test of the Bayley Scales of Infants and Toddler Development, Third Edition (BSID–III screening test) was used to assess development performance at 2 and 6 months of age. Multiple regression analysis showed a negative correlation between cognitive performance at 2 months and maternal diethylthiophosphate (DETP) levels in the 1st–2nd trimester (β ± SE = −0.012 ± 0.004, p < 0.05). We also found that expressive communication and fine motor performance at 6 months were negatively associated with maternal diethyldithiophosphate (DEDTP) levels in the 3rd trimester (β ± SE = −0.047 ± 0.016, p < 0.05, and β ± SE = −0.044 ± 0.017, p < 0.05, respectively). These results suggest that maternal ethylated OP concentrations at different timing of exposure during pregnancy may influence different aspects of infant developmental performance.

Stability of Vocal Variables Measured During the Early Communication Indicator for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) was designed to measure expressive communication progress in young children. We evaluated using the 6-min ECI procedure for a new purpose—a sampling context for stable measures of vocal development of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We evaluated how many ECI sessions were required to adequately stabilize estimates of volubility, communicative use, and phonological complexity of vocalizations at two periods (average of 10 months apart). Participants included 83 young children with ASD (M age = 23.33 months). At study initiation, two phonological complexity variables required two sessions; other variables required three. At study endpoint, all variables required fewer sessions. Findings support the feasibility and stability of using the ECI for the new purpose.

Exploring Expressive Communication Skills in a Cross-Sectional Sample of Individuals With a Dual Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome

Individuals with a comorbid diagnosis of Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been found to exhibit greater deficits in expressive communication than individuals with DS only. We hypothesized that individuals with a comorbid diagnosis (n = 430) would have significantly lower Communication Matrix scores and specifically social communication scores than individuals with DS alone (n = 4,352). In a sample of 4,782 individuals with DS, scores for individuals with a comorbid diagnosis were on average 18.01 points and 7.26 points lower for total score and social score respectively as compared to individuals with DS. Comorbid diagnosis accounted for 10.5% of the variance in communication scores. Between-group differences in referential gestures and symbolic communication behaviors were also observed.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL: Mobile Telephony, Information Verification, and Expressive Communication During Hawaii’s False Missile Alert

On Saturday, 13 January 2018, residents of Hawaii received a chilling message through their smartphones. It read, in all caps, BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. The message was mistakenly sent, but many residents lived in a threatened state of mind for the 38 minutes it took before a retraction was made. This study is based on a survey of 418 people who experienced the alert, recollecting their immediate responses, including how they attempted to verify the alert and how they used their mobile devices and social media for expressive interactions during the alert period. With the ongoing testing in the United States of nationwide Wireless Emergency Alerts, along with similar expansions of these systems in other countries, the event in Hawaii serves to illuminate how people understand and respond to mobile-based alerts. It shows the extreme speed that information—including misinformation—can flow in an emergency, and, for many, expressive communication affects people’s reactions.