Social Timing in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Psychology - Developmental Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, language: English, abstract: The emphasis of this study is on social timing during parent-child interaction in a real-life environment in preschoolers with ASD. As an additional feature, the children and adults in this sample received Musical Intervention Therapy (MIT) in North Wales in the United Kingdom (UK). This allows comparison of interaction with music (hereafter referred to as 'Music') and without music ('Interaction') within an MIT setting. Timing plays a vital role in communication. It allows perception and coordination of communication tools such as speech, facial expressions, and body language. For example, neurotypical individuals naturally sense when it is their turn to speak, and use pauses to emphasise or alter the meaning of what they are trying to convey. When timing is optimal and communication flows evenly, people remain largely unaware of its importance. On the contrary, erratic timing is noticed immediately. For example, when the audio or video transmission during a Skype-conversation lags behind, one can still carry on with his or her conversation but it becomes harder to read social cues and communication becomes tedious. Scholars refer to this type of timing as 'social timing'. Its role is to structure and organise the timing of verbal and non-verbal communication tools. Social timing is further split into the temporal organisation of our own body language and speech ('intrapersonal') and that between self and other ('interpersonal'). Social timing in parent-infant interaction plays a key role for long-term development of communication and social skills. The pioneers of developmental social timing studies focused on describing rhythmicity of pre-verbal communication in the 1970s. A decade later, advances in statistical methods allowed examination of intra- and interpersonal timing, which can be cyclical and synchronous respectively.