M. Suzanne Zeedyk’s research while affiliated with University of Dundee and other places

Shared understanding is generated between individuals before speech through a language of body movement and non-verbal vocalisation, expression of feeling and interest made in gestures of movement and voice. Human understanding is co-created in these embodied projects, displayed in serially organised expressions with shared timing of reciprocal actions between partners. These develop in narrative events that build over cycles of reciprocal expressive action in a four-part structure shared by all the time-based arts: "introduction," "development," "climax," and "conclusion." Pre-linguistic narrative establishes the foundation of later, linguistic intelligence. Yet, participating in social interactions that give rise to narrative development is a central problem of autism spectrum disorder. In this paper, we examine the rapid growth of narrative meaning-making between a non-verbal young woman with severe autism and her new therapist. Episodes of embodied, shared understanding were enabled through a basic therapeutic mode of reciprocal, creative mirroring of expressive gesture. These developed through reciprocal cycles and as the relationship progressed, complete co-created narratives were formed resulting in shared joy and the mutual interest and trust of companionship. These small, embodied stories enabled moments of co-regulated arousal that the young woman had previous difficulty with. These data provide evidence for an intact capacity for non-verbal narrative meaning-making in autism.

Maternal interpretations of the intentionality of infant behaviour have played a key role in many theoretical accounts of the development of intentionality. However, the assessment of maternal interpretations has generally proceeded in an indirect fashion. The present study sought to assess maternal interpretations in a more direct manner. Sixty primiparous mothers of 4- or 8-month-old infants viewed video clips of unfamiliar infants engaged in social-, object- or non-directed activities and rated the actions for perceived intentionality. Results indicated that mothers of younger infants assigned more intentionality to social behaviours than did mothers of older infants, suggesting that maternal interpretations change over the course of infant development. Explanations for this pattern are explored, including the possibility that mothers become less sensitive to established behaviours or that they use a type of moving threshold to judge infant actions. Future avenues of research are suggested.

Background. Programmes designed to teach children about road safety have often failed to assess their effectiveness in terms of either an increase in chilren's knowledge or an improvement in children's behaviour. Aim. The two studies reported here sought to address both issues, by focusing on the abilities of Primary 1 children (5 years old). Sample. A total of 120 Primary 1 children within the age range 4-5 years old participated in this study, drawn from three different primary schools within an educational district of Scotland. Methods. In the first study the effects of three different road safety interventions were tested, all of which employed commercially marketed products: 1) a three-dimensional model of the traffic environment; 2) a road safety board game; and 3) illustrated posters and flip-chart materials. In the second study the transfer of knowledge to children's behaviour in a real-life traffic environment was tested, using a subsample of 47 children who had taken part in the first study. Results. Results from the first study showed, surprisingly, that all three interventions were effective in increasing children's knowledge about safe and dangerous locations at which to cross the street, and that this knowledge was retained for a period of six months. Study 2, however, showed that increased knowledge did not result in improved traffic behaviour. Children who had received training performed no better than children in a control group. Conclusion. These findings highlight the need to distinguish between children's road safety knowledge and their behaviour, particulary for teachers and parents, who may mistakenly believe that children who know more will be safer on the road.

The intervention of Intensive Interaction is gaining attention for its demonstrated effectiveness in promoting social engagement in individuals with severe communicative impairments. The present study sought to extend the evidence base for this intervention by investigating the rapidity with which an increase in engagement becomes apparent. Videotapes of the first Intensive Interaction session for 10 adults with profound learning disabilities were microanalytically coded for four measures of engagement: eye gaze, bodily orientation to partner, proximity to partner, and emotional valence. Results showed an increase for all participants on at least two measures, while 70% of the sample showed increases on all four measures. Such shifts occurred within only a few minutes of the onset of the session (ranging from three to 14 minutes). Non‐parametric analyses confirmed that this robust pattern of increases would not have been predicted to occur by chance. These findings indicate that Intensive Interaction is effective in rapidly promoting social engagement, even for individuals with a long history of apparent social avoidance. Suggestions for future lines of enquiry, at both the empirical and conceptual levels, are discussed.

Accessible summary This article describes the benefits of using an intervention technique called ‘Intensive Interaction’ to make connections with children who are socially withdrawn because of communicative impairments. It summarises the accounts of 12 new trainees who used the technique while working as volunteers with abandoned, special needs children living in state care in Romania. The comments of the volunteers showed that they could identify improvements in the children’s communicative abilities once they began to use Intensive Interaction. For example, the children looked at them more often, they were calmer, and they were more likely to turn the interactions into games. The volunteers’ comments also made it clear that they felt closer to the children as a result of these changes in the interaction style. These results are encouraging, because they suggest that practitioners can be trained in the basics of Intensive Interaction quickly and at a low cost, enabling them to reach children who often have trouble connecting to other people. Summary Within the special needs field, interactive interventions are gaining attention as a means of promoting social engagement for individuals with communicative impairments. The present paper examined the experiences of practitioners of one such approach, Intensive Interaction (II), by analysing written reflections provided by 12 newly trained practitioners. Their insights are particularly interesting because they were working in a voluntary capacity with a novel population: Romanian children living in state care, whose communicative impairments have been complicated by a history of neglect. A thematic analysis indicated that one hour’s training in II was sufficient for (i) enabling trainees to identify key changes in children’s engagement (e.g. increased attention to partner, decreased distress) and (ii) strengthening trainees’ sense of connection to the children. If such brief training sessions are effective in improving communicative interactions, this offers benefits to health and education service providers seeking to implement communicative intervention programmes. While interactive approaches have potential in all regions, they may be particularly valuable in countries such as Romania, which face monumental financial challenges in improving standards of childcare.

The availability of parenting support programmes has increased significantly within the UK over the last decade. Most evaluations of these programmes have focused on short-term outcomes. The present study attempted to gain a longer term perspective by interviewing 20 carers more than 12 months after completing a group-based programme. The results obtained using thematic analysis showed that the majority of participants felt the programme had had lasting effects on their ability to manage their children's behaviour and empowered them as adults. The key themes to emerge in the interviews were: the maintenance of parenting skills, the need for perseverance, strengthening of support networks and encouragement for further provision of programmes. It is argued that evaluation of support programmes should focus on more than parenting skills by assessing their impact on participants’ wider lives.

This paper examines the presence of spontaneous imitation within the social interactions of young people with developmental delay and their adult carers. There have been only a handful of observational studies examining imitation in this population, despite the relevance of such work to contemporary theoretical debates about imitation and the potential that imitation holds as an intervention for promoting communicative skills. The play of eight young people and 13 adult carers over 10 sessions at an after-school club was videotaped and analysed for the presence and impact of spontaneous imitative bouts. Results showed that, in the majority of cases, it was adults who initiated imitative bouts and that the young people generally did not reciprocate such acts. However, even such brief instances of adult imitation were sufficient to increase the children's subsequent smiles and speech vocalizations, as well as the adults' own use of smiling, eye contact, and speech vocalizations. These findings confirm that these young people are sensitive to imitation. The implications for designing interventions that promote communicative exchanges in young people with developmental delay are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.