This book provides an in-depth, multi-dimensional analysis of conversations between autistic adults. The investigation is focussed on intonation style, turn-taking and the use of backchannels, filled pauses and silent pauses. Previous findings on intonation style in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are contradictory, with claims ranging from characteristically monotonous to characteristically melodic intonation. A novel methodology for quantifying intonation style is used, and it is revealed that autistic speakers tended towards a more melodic intonation style compared to control speakers in the data set under investigation. Research on turn-taking (the organisation of who speaks when in conversation) in ASD is limited, with most studies claiming a tendency for longer silent gaps in ASD. No clear overall difference in turn-timing between the ASD and the control group was found in the data under study. There was, however, a clear difference between groups specifically in the earliest stages of dialogue, where ASD dyads produced considerably longer silent gaps than controls. Backchannels (listener signals such as mmhm or okay) have barely been investigated in ASD to date. The current analysis shows that autistic speakers produced fewer backchannels per minute (particularly in the early stages of dialogue), and that backchannels were less diverse prosodically and lexically. Filled pauses (hesitation signals such as uhm and uh) in ASD have been the subject of a handful of previous studies, most of which claim that autistic speakers produced fewer uhm tokens (specifically). It is shown that filled pauses were produced at an identical rate in both groups and that there was an equivalent preference of uhm over uh. ASD speakers differed only in the prosodic realisation of filled pauses. It is further shown that autistic speakers produced more long silent (within-speaker) pauses than controls. The analyses presented in this book provide new insights into conversation strategies and intonation styles in ASD, as reviewed in a summary analysis. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research, general characteristics of cognition in ASD, and the importance of studying communication in interaction and across neurotypes.

This book provides an in-depth, multi-dimensional analysis of conversations between autistic adults. The investigation is focussed on intonation style, turn-taking and the use of backchannels, filled pauses and silent pauses. Previous findings on intonation style in the context of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are contradictory, with claims ranging from characteristically monotonous to characteristically melodic intonation. A novel methodology for quantifying intonation style is used, and it is revealed that autistic speakers tended towards a more melodic intonation style compared to control speakers in the data set under investigation. Research on turn-taking (the organisation of who speaks when in conversation) in ASD is limited, with most studies claiming a tendency for longer silent gaps in ASD. No clear overall difference in turn-timing between the ASD and the control group was found in the data under study. There was, however, a clear difference between groups specifically in the earliest stages of dialogue, where ASD dyads produced considerably longer silent gaps than controls. Backchannels (listener signals such as mmhm or okay) have barely been investigated in ASD to date. The current analysis shows that autistic speakers produced fewer backchannels per minute (particularly in the early stages of dialogue), and that backchannels were less diverse prosodically and lexically. Filled pauses (hesitation signals such as uhm and uh) in ASD have been the subject of a handful of previous studies, most of which claim that autistic speakers produced fewer uhm tokens (specifically). It is shown that filled pauses were produced at an identical rate in both groups and that there was an equivalent preference of uhm over uh. ASD speakers differed only in the prosodic realisation of filled pauses. It is further shown that autistic speakers produced more long silent (within-speaker) pauses than controls. The analyses presented in this book provide new insights into conversation strategies and intonation styles in ASD, as reviewed in a summary analysis. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research, general characteristics of cognition in ASD, and the importance of studying communication in interaction and across neurotypes.

Communication in Autism adopts a multidisciplinary approach to explore one of the most common developmental disorders associated with communication impairment. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about communication in autism is that variation is as extreme as it could possibly be. While some individuals with autism have age-appropriate language, a number have exceptional language skills; others have little or no spoken language. In between these extremes are individuals who experience significant linguistic impairments. These impairments can affect peer relations and literacy skills. The chapters in this volume provide comprehensive coverage of both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical aspects of autistic communication. The result is a volume that showcases the wide range of methodologies being used in this field of research. It is invaluable for scientists, service providers, parents, individuals with autism, and students learning about communication and autism (e.g., in psychology, speech pathology, and education).

Children’s Intonation is a practical guide that focuses on the nature, causes and assessment of intonation problems for children and adolescents. Highlighting the importance of intonation for everyday conversational interaction and the implications of this for teaching and therapy contexts, this book addresses the following questions: How and when do children learn to use intonation for the purposes of interaction? As children get older, does intonation become more important or less important for communication? How might intonation be used to support or compensate for other aspects of language? What are the implications for practitioners, parents and caregivers when interacting with young children? Clinically oriented, this book explores these questions through case studies that cover a range of developmental communication difficulties including autism spectrum disorders, hearing impairment and specific speech and language difficulties. It provides readers with a tool for profiling children’s intonation skills, a developmental phase model to explain typical and atypical intonation development, a psycholinguistic model of intonation processing, interactional perspectives on intonation use, and consideration of intonation in relation to both written and spoken language. It also includes acccess to a companion website with extra resources.

Focusing on applied conversation analysis (CA), this timely book offers practical insights and guidelines for CA scholars studying social interactions in institutional settings. Written in an accessible style and packed with case studies, examples, activities, and practical tips, the book takes readers through the entire process of planning and carrying out an applied CA research study. By highlighting challenges, debates, and important questions, each chapter provides the theoretical foundation necessary for making informed decisions at every stage of a research project. The book is divided into three sections (context and planning, doing a project using conversation analysis, and disseminating your research) to mirror the research process.

This handbook addresses evidence-based practices in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It provides an overview of the history of evidence-based practices and their importance as applied to the law, school settings, and factors that influence the use for treatment of ASD. Additional areas of coverage include evidence-based and non-evidence-based ABA interventions for autism as well as decision-making ethics related to these treatments. In addition, the book addresses cultural considerations as they relate to these treatments and examines procedural aspects of ABA interventions for autism. Key ABA treatments addressed include: Discrete trial teaching. Pivotal response training. Video modeling. Parent-mediated intervention. Early Start Denver Model, PEAK, PECS, and AAC. Script fading/activity schedules and differential reinforcement/extinction. Response interruption and redirection. Self-management and self-monitoring. The Handbook of Applied Behavior Analysis Interventions for Autism is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals across such interrelated disciplines as clinical child, school, and developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, social work, rehabilitation medicine/therapy, pediatrics, and special education.

Written by renowned basic and clinical scientist, Raymond D. Kent, the Handbook on Children’s Speech: Development, Disorders, and Variations provides comprehensive and systematic coverage of the topic of how speech develops and how it can be disordered or otherwise, a departure from typical patterns of a mainstream dialect. The book emphasizes relevant biology and psychology of speech development; contemporary models of spoken language; typical speech development; bilingualism and dialect; motor learning and motor control; clinical assessments of articulation, phonology, voice, prosody, and intelligibility; populations in which speech disorders and differences often occur; and methods and strategies for prevention and treatment. The Handbook covers both speech development and pediatric speech disorders focusing on the ages of birth to puberty. Because speech disorders in children occur against a complex developmental background, the understanding of these disorders requires knowledge about how speech develops and how it is affected in children with disorders or with exposure to languages other than American English. A major theme of the book is that speech development is a constructive, goal-directed phenomenon that weaves together several different processes having their own individual trajectories that generally reach maturity only in puberty or adolescence. For clinicians, researchers, and students, this book will serve as a valuable compendium of the many different tools and methods that have been developed to study speech development in diverse populations and to assess and treat speech disorders and variations.

Success at school and beyond depends to a large extent on being able to make yourself understood. This book looks at the way adolescents express themselves and concentrates on the discrepancies in language use between academically successful and unsuccessful pupils in an educational setting. The authors analyse situations where transfer of information is the prime consideration and suggest ways in which the teacher can step in with practical help. The book explains in non-technical language and with humour the most important findings of a three-year research project into adolescent language. It uses many examples of transcibed speech to demonstrate how communication sometimes breaks down, disabling a pupil's performance and suggests how that performance can be improved.

Multimodal Behavioral Analysis in the Wild: Advances and Challenges presents the state-of- the-art in behavioral signal processing using different data modalities, with a special focus on identifying the strengths and limitations of current technologies. The book focuses on audio and video modalities, while also emphasizing emerging modalities, such as accelerometer or proximity data. It covers tasks at different levels of complexity, from low level (speaker detection, sensorimotor links, source separation), through middle level (conversational group detection, addresser and addressee identification), and high level (personality and emotion recognition), providing insights on how to exploit inter-level and intra-level links. This is a valuable resource on the state-of-the- art and future research challenges of multi-modal behavioral analysis in the wild. It is suitable for researchers and graduate students in the fields of computer vision, audio processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and social signal processing. - Gives a comprehensive collection of information on the state-of-the-art, limitations, and challenges associated with extracting behavioral cues from real-world scenarios - Presents numerous applications on how different behavioral cues have been successfully extracted from different data sources - Provides a wide variety of methodologies used to extract behavioral cues from multi-modal data