The Effects of Gesture Instruction on Communication Abilities of Students with Autism

• Main Authors: nancy, 施琬如
• Other Authors: 唐榮昌
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40144120137902209592

碩士 === 國立嘉義大學 === 特殊教育學系碩士班 === 93 === The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of gesture instruction on communication abilities of students with autism. The multiple probe across subjects of the single-subject approach was conducted. The independent variable was the gesture instruction, and the dependent variable was the communication behavior including the frequency of motoric gesture communication and deictic gesture communication. The participants were three students with autism with absence of speech who were 7, 8, and 8 years old. Each participant accepted the experimental treatment of baseline, processing and maintenance one by one. Visual inspection was used to assess the effects of gesture instruction on the participants in terms of motoric gesture and deictic gesture communication behaviors. At the end of training, teachers and parents were interviewed to examine social validity of these treatment effects. The results of this study were summarized as follows： 1. Gesture instruction enhanced the frequency of the participants’ deictic gesture communication behavior. The treatment effects could be maintained for two weeks and be generalized to another situation. 2. Gesture instruction reduced the frequency of the participants’ motoric gesture communication behavior and the treatment effects could be maintained for two weeks. 3. Both teachers and parents interviewed showed positive attitude toward the gesture instruction, and confirmed the improvement on communication performance of these participants. After the experiment, teachers promised they would continue to use gesture instruction to enhance these students’ communication abilities.