Stuart G. Shanker

Learning through interaction in children with autism: Preliminary data from asocial-communication-based intervention:

The study evaluates a social-communication-based approach to autism intervention aimed at improving the social interaction skills of children with autism spectrum disorder. We report preliminary results from an ongoing randomized controlled trial of 51 children aged 2 years 0 months to 4 years 11 months. Participants were assigned to either a target treatment or community treatment group. Families in the target treatment group were given 2 hours of therapy and coaching each week in an intervention emphasizing social-interaction and the parent-child relationship. Children in the community treatment group received a variety of services averaging 3.9 hours per week. After 12 months, outcomes were measured to determine changes in the groups in social interaction and communication. In addition, a regression analysis was conducted to determine whether changes in social interaction skills were associated with language development. Results suggest that children in the treatment group made significantly greater gains in social interaction skills in comparison to the community treatment group, but no between-group differences were found for standard language assessments. Initiation of joint attention, involvement, and severity of language delay were found to be significantly associated with improvement of language skills in children with autism. Finally caregiver skills targeted by the intervention were found to be significantly associated with changes in children’s interaction skills.

The emergence of a new paradigm in ape language research

In recent years we have seen a dramatic shift, in several different areas of communication studies, from an information-theoretic to a dynamic systems paradigm. In an information processing system, communication, whether between cells, mammals, apes, or humans, is said to occur when one organism encodes information into a signal that is transmitted to another organism that decodes the signal. In a dynamic system, all of the elements are continuously interacting with and changing in respect to one another, and an aggregate pattern emerges from this mutual co-action. Whereas the information-processing paradigm looks at communication as a linear, binary sequence of events, the dynamic systems paradigm looks at the relation between behaviors and how the whole configuration changes over time. One of the most dramatic examples of the significance of shifting from an information processing to a dynamic systems paradigm can be found in the debate over the interpretation of recent advances in ape language research (ALR). To some extent, many of the early ALR studies reinforced the stereotype that animal communication is functional and stimulus bound, precisely because they were based on an information-processing paradigm that promoted a static model of communicative development. But Savage-Rumbaughs recent results with bonobos has introduced an entirely new dimension into this debate. Shifting the terms of the discussion from an information-processing to a dynamic systems paradigm not only highlights the striking differences between Savage-Rumbaughs research and earlier ALR studies, but further, it sheds illuminating light on the factors that underpin the development of communication skills in great apes and humans, and the relationship between communicative development and the development of language.

How can we know the dancer from the dance?: The dynamic nature of African great ape social communication

We argue that dynamic-systems theory (DST) offers researchers a promising alternative to the information-processing framework that has dominated the study of primate social communication. DST rejects a linear view of communication in which a sender transmits a signal to a receiver, who then decodes that signal for its information content. Instead, dynamic-systems theory envisions communication as an intrinsically creative process that unfolds as communicating partners continuously adjust their behaviors to one another. This process of continual adjustment, termed co-regulation, can be identified in the social communication of the African great apes. When researchers study communication in terms of co-regulated social interaction, new insights and research questions emerge that may help anthropologists better understand the nature of the vocal and gestural behaviors of our closest living relatives.

Gödel's theorem in focus

A laymans guide to the mechanics of Godels proof together with a lucid discussion of the issues which it raises. Includes an essay discussing the significance of Godels work in the light of Wittgensteins criticisms.

Guidelines for early identification, screening, and clinical management of children with autism spectrum disorders.

Congratulations to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Two of their recent clinical reports published in Pediatrics , “Identification and Evaluation of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders”1 and “Management of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders,”2 will enable pediatricians to address parent concerns sooner, facilitating the early identification of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). As physicians and developmentalists with decades of accumulated experience in working with children with developmental challenges, we applaud and welcome these publications. However, we would like to expand on these reports. In this commentary we (1) describe a broader functional/developmental framework for screening for ASDs, (2) provide a critique of the current trend toward behavioral treatments as primary intervention strategies, and (3) present research evidence for functional/developmental approaches. A broader and more refined “functional” developmental framework3 looks for compromises in the childs healthy milestones and helps parents and other caregivers work with the child to improve that area of functioning and overall healthy progression.* This approach helps families identify challenges early in the first and second years of life and to begin to help their children before the 18- and 24-month screenings recommended by the AAP.4 An overfocus on specific problem behaviors without a framework for promoting healthy development may prove to be counterproductive.5 Screening that focuses on specific behaviors or symptoms (eg, whether a child responds to his or her name toward the end of the first year) may identify a percentage … Address correspondence to Stanley I. Greenspan, MD, 7201 Glenbrook Road, Bethesda, MD 20814. E-mail: stanleygreenspan{at}gmail.com

Human development in the twenty-first century : visionary ideas from systems scientists

Preface: the dynamic systems approach to fostering human development Alan Fogel, Barbara J. King and Stuart G. Shanker Part I. Dynamic Relationships between Genetics and Environments: 1. Developmental dynamics: the new view from the life sciences Robert Lickliter 2. Genes, experience and behaviour Timothy D. Johnston 3. How dynamic systems have changed our minds Ken Richardson 4. Individual development as a system of coactions: implications for research and policy Gilbert Gottlieb and Carolyn Tucker Halpern 5. Gene-environment interactions and inter-individual differences in rhesus monkey behavioral and biological development Stephen J. Suomi Part II. The Dynamic System of the Child in the Family: 6. Relationships that support human development Alan Fogel 7. The impact of emotions and the emotional impact of a childs first words Stuart G. Shanker 8. Emotional habits in brain and behaviour: a window on personality development Marc D. Lewis 9. Creating family love: an evolutionary perspective Barbara J. King Part III. The Dynamic System of the Child in Social and Physical Environment: 10. The tempest: anthropology and human development Peter Gow 11. An anthropology of human development: what difference does it make? Christina Toren 12. The social child Tim Ingold 13. Learning about human development from a study of educational failure Gillian Evans 14. Dynamic views of education Lynette Friedrich Cofer 15. Embodied communication in non-human animals Barbara Smuts 16. Children in the living world: why animals matter for childrens development Gail F. Melson Part IV. Dynamic Systems Approaches to Mental Health: 17. A dynamic developmental model of mental health and mental illness Stanley I. Greenspan 18. Dyadic microanalysis of mother-infant communication informs clinical practice Beatrice Beebe and Joseph Jaffe 19. Current problems of Japanese youth: some possible pathways for alleviating these problems from the perspective of dynamic systems theory Alan Fogel and Masatoshi Kawai 20. A different way to help George Downing 21. Why do siblings often turn out very differently? Michael E. Kerr 22. A dynamic systems approach to understanding family and peer relationships: implications for effective interventions with aggressive youth Isabela Granic 23. Prenatal substance exposure and human development Daniel S. Messinger and Barry M. Lester Part V. Conclusions and Outlook: 24. Dynamic systems methods for the life sciences Alan Fogel, Stanley Greenspan, Barbara J. King, Robert Lickliter, Pedro Reygadas, Stuart G. Shanker and Christina Toren.

The Imaginary Part of Coherency in Autism: Differences in Cortical Functional Connectivity in Preschool Children

Cognition arises from the transient integration and segregation of activity across functionally distinct brain areas. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which encompass a wide range of developmental disabilities, have been presumed to be associated with a problem in cortical and sub-cortical dynamics of coordinated activity, often involving enhanced local but decreased long range coordination over areas of integration. In this paper we challenge this idea by presenting results from a relatively large population of ASD children and age-matched controls during a face-processing task. Over most of the explored domain, children with ASD exhibited enhanced synchronization, although finer detail reveals specific enhancement/reduction of synchrony depending on time, frequency and brain site. Our results are derived from the use of the imaginary part of coherency, a measure which is not susceptible to volume conduction artifacts and therefore presents a credible picture of coordinated brain activity. We also present evidence that this measure is a good candidate to provide features in building a classifier to be used as a potential biomarker for autism.

Measuring and supporting language function for children with autism: evidence from a randomized control trial of a social-interaction-based therapy.

In a report of the effectiveness of MEHRIT, a social-interaction-based intervention for autism, Casenhiser et al. (Autism 17(2):220–241, 2013) failed to find a significant advantage for language development in the treatment group using standardized language assessments. We present the results from a re-analysis of their results to illustrate the importance of measuring communicative language acts (formally called “speech acts”). Reanalysis confirmed that children in the MEHRIT group outperformed the community treatment group on measures of MLUm, number of utterances produced, and various speech act categories. The study underscores the importance of functional language measures in guiding and evaluating treatment for children with autism, and suggests that MEHRIT is effective in improving children’s use of language during parent–child interactions.

Autism and the Dynamic Developmental Model of Emotions

The present paper argues that what the phenomenon of autism may really represent is not, as has been argued by some, a window into the hidden mechanisms involved in a theory of mind, but rather a window into the conceptual problems involved in Cartesianism that lead one to postulate the need for a theory of mind. Far from constituting an anomaly for the Cartesian view of social cognition and empathy, autism actually exemplifies it. After reviewing the main themes in the Cartesian view of emotions, which underpin the view that the ability to understand facial expressions of emotion must be innate, the paper considers how recent advances in dynamic systems research have laid the groundwork for a non-Cartesian view of this capacity. Such a non-Cartesian view of emotional experience then leads to a new understanding of the factors that place a child at risk of developing autism.

On the Meanings of Self-Regulation: Digital Humanities in Service of Conceptual Clarity.

Self-regulation is of interest both to psychologists and to teachers. But what the word means is unclear. To define it precisely, two studies examined the American Psychological Associations system of controlled vocabulary-specifically, the 447 associated terms it presents-and used techniques from the Digital Humanities to identify 88 closely related concepts and six broad conceptual clusters. The resulting analyses show how similar ideas are interrelated: self-control, self-management, self-observation, learning, social behavior, and the personality constructs related to self-monitoring. A full-color network map locates these concepts and clusters relative to each other. It also highlights some of the interests of different audiences, which can be described heuristically using two axes that have been labeled abstract versus practical and self-oriented versus other-oriented.