Investigating the impact of an adult interactive style intervention on the spontaneous communication of three students with autism and severe learning difficulties

Davies, Natasha (2023). Investigating the impact of an adult interactive style intervention on the spontaneous communication of three students with autism and severe learning difficulties. University of Birmingham. Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

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Abstract

RATIONALE: Enabling spontaneous communication has been identified as a key goal in the education of students with autism. Autistic young people with severe learning difficulties are an under-researched group and there is a gap in curricular and pedagogical guidance and training for staff working in special schools. Educational psychologists could have a greater role in addressing this. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the impact of an Adult Interactive Style Intervention (Kossyvaki, 2017) on the spontaneous communication of three young people with autism and severe learning difficulties, with a view to broadening the offer of educational psychology services.

INTERVENTION PROCEDURE: Staff were videoed naturally interacting with the students. The video was edited and shared during group training sessions to highlight strengths and good practice, illustrating 13 general principles and 8 communicative opportunities distilled from the autism intervention literature. Staff trialled the strategies over several weeks, were facilitated to reflect on them, and decided to implement 6 of the communicative opportunities from the original study. These were incorporated into the students’ daily routine as often as possible for 5 weeks. Supervision sessions were held half way through the strategy implementation phase.

METHODOLOGY: The project is founded on a critical realist philosophical position and used an action research methodology to produce a nested case study. Data was collected using a mixed methods approach, including video observation of the students pre and post intervention, semi structured interviews with staff post intervention, a self-report check in questionnaire completed by staff regarding their use of the communicative opportunities, and contextual information was recorded in the researcher’s diary.

FINDINGS: The spontaneous communication of two students improved (implementation of the principles and data collection was limited for the third child). A range of factors impacting the intervention were identified at the student, staff, process and school level, and used to inform implications for future research and educational psychology practice.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

Supervisor(s):