The development of social cognition depends on a number of factors, including:
- Typical pro-social skills development (eg gaze following, shared attention), sensory processing, etc;
- Sympathetic, responsive and consistent parenting;
- Rich communication experiences;
- Discussion of social experiences, especially within the family.
Children with SLD/PMLD/CLDD may experience a range of social and
emotional difficulties which will impact on their engagement in learning and interactions with others.
The following slides focus on a social emotional issue with autism as the focus disability. This disability was chosen as it often co-occurs in children with CLDD. Background information about the social emotional developmental area can be found at Level B.
If a child lacks the behaviours below, it suggests an immediate need for
autism screening:
- No babbling by 12 months.
- No gesturing (pointing, waving bye-bye, etc.) by 12 months.
- No single words by 16 months.
- No two-word spontaneous (not just echolalic) phrases by 24 months.
- Any loss of any language or social skills at any age.
Diagonistic options: a guide for professionals
Baron-Cohen (1995) identifies the following key stages in development.
0-9 months
Intention Detection and Eye Direction Detection
Dyadic: caregiver/child
9-18 months
Shared Attention Mechanism
Triadic: caregiver/child/object, etc.
48 months
Emerging Theory of Mind
This may appear earlier (Goswami and Bryant, 2007).
Alcorn et al (2011) make the following observations:
- Typically developing individuals frequently initiate joint attention [co-ordination of attention on an object] for the purpose of social sharing, finding the reciprocal interest and affect strongly motivating.
- Joint attention... requires the ability to follow and direct another person's focus of attention... [indicated by] gaze direction or gesture.
- Individuals with ASD often show extreme difficulty with the gaze following and social inference necessary for successful joint attention.
- [Initiation of] joint attention is a key skill... its improvement seems to lead to lasting benefit in many areas, including language.
Interventions must be informed by effective assessment/functional analysis.
Existing and developing strategies include:
- Group social skills training
(Williams White et al, 2006) - Social stories
(Gray, 2010) - Teaching play
(Phillips and Beavan, 2012) - Child-led interaction
(eg Caldwell, 2010; Hewett et al, 2012;
Nind et al, 2001; Stephens, 2008)
- Sherborne Developmental Movement
(Konaka, 2007) - Emotion recognition coaching
(University of Cambridge, 2004) - ICT-supported
social problem-solving
(Alcorn et al, 2011; Bernard-Opitz et al, 2001) - Robots
(Dautenhahn and Werry, 2004)
Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Good practice guidance.
Annesley: Department for Education and Skills.
Beyer, J. and Gammeltoft, L. (1999) Autism and Play.
London: Jessica Kingsley.
Guralnick, M.J., Hammond, M.A. and Connor, R.T. (2006) Nonsocial play patterns of young children with communication disorders: implications for behavioral adaptation, Early Education and Development, 17 (2), 203-228.
Ingersoll, B.R. (2010) Teaching social communication: a comparison of naturalistic behavioural and development, social pragmatic approaches for children with autism spectrum disorders, Journal of Positive Interventions, 12 (1), 33-43.
Jordan, R. (2003) Social play and autistic spectrum disorders: a perspective
on theory, implications and educational approaches, Autism, 7, 347-360.
Morton, A.G., Stevenson, J.L., Khandakar, S. and Goldsmith, H.H. (2008)
Why does joint attention look atypical in autism?, Child Development
Perspectives, 2 (1), 38-45.
Ramachandran, V.S. and Lindsay, M.O. (2006) Broken mirrors: a theory of
autism,
Scientific American, 295 (5), 63-69.
Rizzolatti, G., Fogassi, L. and Gillese, V. (2006) Mirrors in the mind,
Scientific American, 295 (5), 54-61.
Thornton, K. and Taylor, E. (2007) An interactive approach supporting
behavioural and developmental growth. In: Carpenter, B. and Egerton, J.
(eds) New Horizons in Special Education: Evidence-based practice in action.
Clent: Sunfield Publications.
Trevarthen, C. (2011) What is it like to be a person who knows nothing?:
defining the active intersubjective mind of a newborn human being, Infant
and Child Development, 29, 119-135.
Visual Impairment and Autism Project (2011) Children who
Have Visual
Impairment and Autism: Identifying and sharing practice (Resource pack).
London: Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).