Collateral Effects of Photographs and the Tell Me MORE Intervention Package on the Reminiscing Style of Mothers and their Children with and at Risk for Autism
Open Access
Author:
Bhana, Naima
Graduate Program:
Special Education
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 26, 2021
Committee Members:
Pamela Wolfe, Program Head/Chair Jessica Caron, Outside Unit & Field Member Jonte Taylor, Major Field Member Tracy Raulston, Dissertation Co-Advisor David Mcnaughton, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties sharing past experiences. The ability to share past experiences is first developed through joint-reminiscing conversations between caregiver and child. In this study I conducted a secondary analysis of a single-case dataset to evaluate the collateral effects of family photographs and training and coaching in naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention on the parents’ joint reminiscing style, types and accuracy of child responses, and total number of utterances spoken by parent and child. Results of this study indicate that utilizing family photographs as visual supports had positive effects on the parent’s reminiscing style, the child’s memory responses, and the child’s ability to correctly answer questions and small effects on average number of utterances for Dyads 1 and 3. Additional increases were observed in these categories after training and coaching in NDBI strategies. In addition, I conducted a second study that investigated the social validity of the intervention as evaluated by the mothers who participated in the first study and early intervention professionals naïve to the conditions and goals of the study. All mothers reported spontaneous generalization of the NDBI strategies to other activities or materials after intervention. The intervention components were also, overall, rated favorably by the early intervention professionals.
