Interacción socio-afectiva temprana de niños con autismo en contextos escolares y durante la comunicación facial
Title (trans.)
Early socio-affective interaction in children with autism in school contexts and during facial communicationAuthor
Folch Schulz, JuliaAdvisor
Iglesias Dorado, JaimeEntity
UAM. Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la SaludDate
2015-12-22Funded by
Esta tesis ha recibido el apoyo institucional por parte de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid mediante una Ayuda a Tercer Ciclo. Asimismo, forma parte de los proyectos de investigación dirigidos por el Dr. Jaime Iglesias Dorado en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (PB95-0246, subvencionado por la Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior y PSI2013-46007- P financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad).Subjects
Niños autistas - Tesis doctorales; Educación especial - Tesis doctorales; PsicologíaNote
Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud. Fecha de lectura: 22-12-2015Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
The main objective of this thesis is framed in the research on Cognitive and Social
Neuroscience (Psychobiology of Facial Information Processing) developed in the
Department of Biological Psychology and Health at the Autonomous University of
Madrid (Recognized Research Group PS-019). According among others to Hobson (1989,
2002), Langdell (1978) and Rutter (1983), we assume that the alterations in the processing
of socioemotional information shown by autistic children always involve severe
disorders of nonverbal communication that precede alterations in verbal communication
and are due deficits in the early development of the nervous system. We further assume
that autism can be reliably diagnosed from a proper evaluation of the socio-affective
behavior (Asperger, 1944; Kanner, 1943). This approach is consistent with the progress
experienced in recent years by differential diagnosis of autism, and the introduction of
a more dimensional perspective of autism that involved the introduction of a new
construct, that of "autism spectrum disorders" (ASD) (Fombonne et al., 1997; Frith and
Happe, 2006; Orte et al, 1995).
According to this conceptual and methodological approach, in this thesis we defend that
the proper understanding of the behavior of people with ASD requires delving into the
relationship between the neurobiology of autism and the development of early
socioemotional behavior (Baron-Cohen, Knickmeyer y Belmonte, 2005 Herbert et al,
2006; Persico & Bourgeron, 2006; Rutter, 2000; Wing & Potter, 2009). But despite the
advances made in understanding autism and in its diagnosis, psycho-diagnosis is still
insufficient to detect cognitive and social impairments in young children who are later
identified as autistic, what not only greatly complicates this aim, but also, from a much
broader perspective, early intervention and prevention of major social imbalances that
characterize the behavior of people with ASD and the quality of life of their families
(Baron et al., 2006; Gray, 2002; Pisula, 1998; Yirmiya & Shaked, 2005). Therefore, we
assumed in this thesis the need to investigate the possibility of defining more accurate
early indicators of autistic behavior. In particular, we proposed the possibility to
improve early detection of autism symptoms through observation and functional
analysis of the nonverbal communication behavior of the child with ASD, and more
specifically, focusing on early nonverbal socioemotional communication.
Consequently, we started with a precise and systematic identification of what emotions
are the autistic children able to exhibit but also what stimuli or situations trigger these
emotions (Rogers, Dawson & Vismara, 2012; Zwaigenbaum, 2009). In order to achieve
this aim, this thesis focused on a group of 15 children suffering from primary and
secondary autism, all attending the same special school, with a chronological age
ranging from 3 to 15 years and mental ages between 12 and 48 months. The participants
were studied in their normal school environment with special attention to their
emotional expressions (facial, posture, voice ...), particularly at the time of encoding and
expressing emotions in response to the basic emotions expressed by their teachers and
other contextual stimuli
In order to be as precise as possible, we considered it more appropriate not to restrict
beforehand the stimulating contexts and the socioemotional expressions that we should
study (which is common in this type of study), as well as to break down all interactions
that may be observed among children with different autism spectrum disorders and
their educators in their natural socio-communicative context. Therefore, we described
the stimulus backgrounds and the consequences of both typical and altered
socioemotional behaviors, with a special focus on the emotional expressions.
For this purpose, we structured this thesis in two main parts. In Part I, entitled
"Introduction", we first justified how the assumption of psychological-dimensional
construct of "autism spectrum disorders" enriches the traditional clinical concept of
"autism, and gives meaning to the progress made in recent years in the diagnosis and
treatment of childhood autism through a clearly multidisciplinary approach. We also
reviewed the explanatory theories of infantile autism, paying special attention to
neurobiological theories and genetic basis of autism in relation to the early development
of the nervous system. The objective was to understand why there manifest different
forms of autism, and which are the differences between children with primary and
secondary autism, more concretely if they show specific alterations on neural structures
and functions that make up the social brain. We ended this first part inquiring whether
there is any link between the neurobiological alterations that show children with
different forms of autism and early basic skills for social communication, particularly in
their use of facial expression of basic emotions during nonverbal communication.
Part II, entitled "Empirical Studies" picks up three successive studies devoted to the
analysis of socioemotional behavior of children with primary and secondary autism in
the natural school environment:
1) "Observation of the socioaffective behaviors of autistic children in natural school
settings" - a study that implied a direct observation of behaviors after completing an
extensive literature review about the topic and designing an ethological log sheet-,
2)" The emotional behavior of autistic children in the school environment, "- a study
based on video recordings and applying objective systems for observing and codifying
emotional expressions, the FACS and the AFFEX-, and
3)" The emotions of autistic children perceived by parents and educators"- a study based
on questionnaires specifically developed for this purpose intended to identify which
stimuli and responses consider adults familiar with the autistic children as emotional.
All with the aim to assess whether this new approach in early diagnosis of autism could
help to anticipate future alterations in nonverbal and verbal communication, as well as
to improve their perception of people who are commonly in contact with autistic
children
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