Psychology & Children
Gabriella Castillo-Martine, gabriella_castillo-1@baylor.edu
Baylor University, with Dr. Jessica Akers
Educational Psychology
Sibling Implemented Mand-Training to Increase Mand Variability in Children with Autism
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may struggle with engaging in prosocial behavior that aligns with their typically developing peers due to difficulty in verbal and social skills. Children with ASD often receive behavioral interventions to promote acquisition of verbal behavior and social skills. Researchers and clinicians commonly implement these behavioral interventions. However, it is important to evaluate the extent to which family members can implement these interventions. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a sibling-implemented intervention consisting of script training and a lag schedule of reinforcement to increase mand variability. Mand variability refers to requesting for items using different phrases such as “can I have”, “I want”, and “may I please have”. This research was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Jessica Akers, Assistant Professor of Baylor University's Educational Psychology Department and through Baylor University’s McNair Scholars Program. We conducted the study in a clinical setting and used single-subject research design. We conducted 12 5-minute sessions using a reversal design, examining how sibling implementation of scripted mand training impacts the social skills and mand variability of the child with ASD. A secondary purpose of this study was to assess qualitative changes in the dynamic between the child with ASD and their typically developing sibling. We observed an increase in mand variability in our participant with ASD, indicating that the sibling-implemented intervention encourages both prosocial behaviors and verbal skill acquisition in children with ASD. Future research could examine the efficacy of script fading in sibling-implemented mand training.
Casandra Rodriguez, crodriguez20fl@ollusa.edu
Our Lady of the Lake University, with Dr. Brittany A. Chozinski
Psychology
Can cartoons help build empathy and social cues for children who have displayed symptoms of antisocial personality disorder?
The purpose of this research is to determine if children with a conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder diagnosis can build social cues through cartoons. There has been little research that focuses on potential positive impacts on children who have conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder diagnosis. There has been research involving children from the autism spectrum who use cartoons, videos, animations, or games to introduce social cues. It is important to provide children with positive learning opportunities to help them build a sense of security and strong relationships with their peers and authority figures. Analyzing the social cues that are portrayed in specific cartoons can be a useful way to learn about the skills that are necessary for effective social interactions. As well as looking at how the cartoon creators were able to simplify the behavior for the children to understand without the message being overwhelming that children are not able to grasp the concept. Depending on the collection of skills identified, research findings could potentially be used to create a cartoon at a later date.
Jessica Martin, jmarti43@forum.montevallo.edu
University of Montevallo, with Dr. Rachel Jubran
Psychology
The Face of Narcissism: How Caregivers’ Narcissism Affects Children’s Emotional Perception in Faces
Preschoolers have a basic understanding of facial emotion expressions, and it may be influenced by the care of the parents. This study examined how the development of facial emotion perception in children was impacted by caregivers’ narcissism levels. There is lack of extensive research on this age group and the effects of narcissism. Caregivers completed a survey measuring narcissism, perceived socioeconomic status, and maternal education. Narcissism was measured using a shortened version of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-16). Children ages 3-5 viewed eight adult models expressing four emotions. The children’s perception of the models’ emotion was analyzed according to the sex of the participant and the sex of the model. The perceived intensity of the emotions was recorded using a Likert scale of 1-5 (5 = highest intensity). Correct identification of the emotions was expected to be higher for the female models than the male models, and this hypothesis was confirmed, t (20) = 2.27, p = .04. A negative correlation between the intensity of male sad faces and caregivers' narcissism levels emerged (r = -.68, p = .05). Perceived socioeconomic status was negatively related to caregivers’ narcissism (r = -.55, p = .05). Results revealed a positive relationship between maternal education levels and overall intensity ratings for female anger (r = .54, p = .01). The differences might be due to exposure to facial emotion expressions and socialization. More nuanced results might be discovered with varying levels of intensity in facial emotion expressions and more detailed measures of narcissism.
Session Location
- Foster 124
Session Date/Time
- Thursday, 1:45 - 2:45pm
Session Type
- Oral Student Presentations
- Student Presentations