Date of Award

2015

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Health Sciences

First Advisor

Gordon Pershey, Monica

Subject Headings

speach therapy, autism spectrum disorder autism sibling dyads sibling-mediated intervention typically developing siblings communicative behaviors speech language therapy sibling models

Abstract

The puropse of this study was to document the communicative behaviors exhibited by sibling dyads comprised of one typically developing child (TDC) and their sibling diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (SibA). Six families (five families were Caucasian and one family was African American) participated in one 45-minute home observation, one semi-structured interview with the TDCs, and one semi-structured interview with the parents. Sibling dyads varied across birth order, ages, and genders. Observations revealed that the sibling dyads produced a variety of communicative behaviors. Observational data were coded to provide information on the types of communicative behaviors produced and their frequency of occurrence. Data were analyzed to reveal the types of communicative behaviors that both the TDCs and the SibAs produced, as well as the types of communicative behaviors produced only by the TDCs and only by the SibAs. The TDCs provided relevant answers to semi-structured interview questions about their interactions with their SibAs, and the parents provided relevant answers to semi-structured interview questions about their childreń⁰₉s relationships. Four out of the six families provided strong evidence that suggested the possibility of sibling-mediated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder. Two out of the six families provided some evidence that suggested the possibility of sibling-mediated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

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