Katie Cebula

Social cognition in children with Down's syndrome: challenges to research and theory building

Characterising how socio-cognitive abilities develop has been crucial to understanding the wider development of typically developing children. It is equally central to understanding developmental pathways in children with intellectual disabilities such as Downs syndrome. While the process of acquisition of socio-cognitive abilities in typical development and in autism has received considerable attention, socio-cognitive development in Downs syndrome has received far less scrutiny. Initial work in the 1970s and 1980s provided important insights into the emergence of socio-cognitive abilities in the childrens early years, and recently there has been a marked revival of interest in this area, with research focusing both on a broader range of abilities and on a wider age range. This annotation reviews some of these more recent findings, identifies outstanding gaps in current understanding, and stresses the importance of the development of theory in advancing research and knowledge in this field. Barriers to theory building are discussed and the potential utility of adopting a transactional approach to theory building illustrated with reference to a model of early socio-cognitive development in Downs syndrome. The need for a more extensive model of social cognition is emphasised, as is the need for larger-scale, finer-grained, longitudinal work which recognises the within-individual and within-group variability which characterises this population. The value of drawing on new technologies and of adapting innovative research paradigms from other areas of typical and atypical child psychology is also highlighted.

Social Cognition in Children with Down Syndrome

Abstract Children with Down syndrome face considerable intellectual challenges. Despite the widespread belief that their social understanding is relatively “spared,” many also experience significant difficulties at an interpersonal level. This chapter assesses the literature on sociocognitive development in Down syndrome and the evidence for strengths or weaknesses in understanding the social behaviors, emotions, and intentions of others. It highlights the predominant focus to date on infants and preschool children and the consequent need for more research at older ages, ideally through larger‐scale, cross‐syndromic, and longitudinal studies. It also underlines the need to tie knowledge of developmental trajectories not only to the underlying neurobiology of Down syndrome but also to aspects of the childrens social environment. Investigating how interpersonal understanding is used in learning contexts and translating this knowledge into more focused support programs should also be a priority.

Collaborative Learning: Comparison of Outcomes for Typically Developing Children and Children with Intellectual Disabilities.

Collaborative learning is widely used in mainstream education but rarely utilized with children who have intellectual disabilities, possibly on the assumption that the metacognitive skills on which it capitalizes are less likely to be available. Effects of collaborative learning experience on a core cognitive skill, sorting by category, were investigated in three child groups: typically developing (TD) children, children with nonspecific intellectual disabilities (NSID) and children with Down syndrome (DS). Following collaboration, sorting performance improved significantly in lower ability partners in TD-TD pairings, with this pattern reversed in NSID-NSID pairings. Neither partner improved significantly in DS-NSID pairings, suggesting that the sociability attributed to children with DS did not necessarily support either their or their partners learning in this social context.

Experiences of disabled students in initial teacher education

This paper reports on a survey that aimed to explore the experiences of students undertaking initial teacher education and community education degrees in a Scottish university. The survey focused in particular on decisions around disclosure of disability and experiences on ‘placements’ in schools or community work settings. Findings indicated that many students chose not to disclose their disability, and for those who did this was a very individual process that was made up of a series of negotiations, rather than being a one‐off decision. Those students who did choose to discuss their disability during placements reported positive responses on the whole, although for a few students the demands of placement proved problematic. Implications are discussed in the context of the current disability legislation. In particular, the notion of attendance on placement as a required competence standard is considered.

Applied Behavior Analysis Programs for Autism: Sibling Psychosocial Adjustment During and Following Intervention Use

Psychosocial adjustment in siblings of children with autism whose families were using a home-based, applied behavior analysis (ABA) program was compared to that of siblings in families who were not using any intensive autism intervention. Data gathered from parents, siblings and teachers indicated that siblings in ABA families experienced neither significant drawbacks nor benefits in terms of their behavioral adjustment, sibling relationship quality and self-concept compared to control group siblings, either during or following intervention use. Parents and siblings perceived improvements in sibling interaction since the outset of ABA, with parents somewhat more positive in their views than were siblings. Social support was associated with better sibling outcomes in all groups. Implications for supporting families using ABA are considered.

The role of the broader autism phenotype and environmental stressors in the adjustment of siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders in Taiwan and the United Kingdom

The influence of the broader autism phenotype (BAP) on the adjustment of siblings of children with autism has previously been researched mainly in Western cultures. The present research evaluated a diathesis-stress model of sibling adjustment using a questionnaire study including 80 and 75 mother-typically developing sibling dyads in Taiwan and the United Kingdom (UK). UK siblings reported elevated adjustment difficulties compared to the Taiwanese sample and to normative data. Whilst higher BAP levels were generally associated with greater adjustment difficulties, differences were found across cultures and respondents. Although significant diathesis-stress interactions were found, these were in the opposite direction from those predicted by the model, and differed across cultural settings. Implications for culturally-sensitive sibling support are considered.

Siblings of children with autism: The Siblings Embedded Systems Framework

Purpose of ReviewA range of interacting factors/mechanisms at the individual, family, and wider systems levels influences siblings living in families where one sibling has autism. We introduce the Sibling Embedded Systems Framework which aims to contextualise siblings’ experience and characterise the multiple and interacting factors influencing family and, in particular, sibling outcomes.Recent FindingsFindings from studies that have reported outcomes for siblings of children with autism are equivocal, ranging from negative impact, no difference, to positive experience. This is likely due to the complex nature of understanding the sibling experience. We focus on particular elements of the framework and review recent novel literature to help guide future directions for research and practice including the influence of culture, methodological considerations, and wider participatory methods.SummaryThe Siblings Embedded System Framework can be used to understand interactive factors that affect sibling adjustment and to develop clinically, educationally and empirically based work that aims to enhance and support sibling adjustment, relationships, and well-being in families of children with autism.

Cross-Cultural Variations in Naïve Psychology among 2-year-olds: A Comparison of Children in the United Kingdom and Singapore

Children’s understanding of naive psychology is the main focus of this study. Research evidence suggests that 2- and 3-year-olds understand some aspects of naive psychology. By 4 years, they develop internal representations of mental states. Previous studies have also reported cross-cultural variations in naive psychology development. The majority of this research has focused on Western individualistic societies such as Australia, Europe and North America, and Eastern collectivism societies such as China and Japan. Singapore with its blend of Eastern and Western values represents a unique case for comparison with Western societies. This paper reports a cross-cultural study of young children’s developing understanding of naive psychology in Edinburgh, UK and Singapore. It addresses three main questions: (a) Are there cross-cultural differences in the development of naive psychology?; (b) What are children’s performance sequences on naive psychology tasks?; and (c) Are naive psychology concepts coherent? The participants were 87 children from the UK (n=43, mean age 2 years 4 months) and Singapore (n=44, mean age 2 years 5 months). This study incorporated several established tasks of pretence, desires, emotions, perceptions, appearance-reality and false-beliefs to investigate children’s understanding of non-representational and representational mental states. The results showed no gross cross-cultural differences. However, significant cultural differences in performance on two tasks and differences in the coherence of naive psychology concepts were identified. The results highlight the importance of considering subtle cultural influences on children’s developing understanding of various aspects of naive psychology.

Listening to young people with autism: learning from researcher experiences

ABSTRACT This study explores the opportunities and dilemmas that have been encountered by researchers seeking the views of young people with autism. Twelve researchers were interviewed about their experiences in this field. Through exploration of the complex methodological and ethical issues that they encountered, this study aims to better understand how researchers can improve the way they listen to, and engage with, the views of children and young people with autism. This article discusses four themes that emerged from the interviews: power dynamics; building rapport; communication; and meaningful processes and outputs.

Emotion Recognition in Children With Down Syndrome: Influence of Emotion Label and Expression Intensity

Some children with Down syndrome may experience difficulties in recognizing facial emotions, particularly fear, but it is not clear why, nor how such skills can best be facilitated. Using a photo-matching task, emotion recognition was tested in children with Down syndrome, children with nonspecific intellectual disability and cognitively matched, typically developing children (all groups N = 21) under four conditions: veridical vs. exaggerated emotions and emotion-labelling vs. generic task instructions. In all groups, exaggerating emotions facilitated recognition accuracy and speed, with emotion labelling facilitating recognition accuracy. Overall accuracy and speed did not differ in the children with Down syndrome, although recognition of fear was poorer than in the typically developing children and unrelated to emotion label use. Implications for interventions are considered.