Anthony Crane

Nonverbal Communication
4/27/17

Nonverbal Communication and Autism

Nonverbal communication is a major part of how we communicate. There are some who

believe that we communicate nonverbally over 90% of the timethough the exact number is

uncertain. We as human beings communicate differently depending on all kinds of variables:

race, gender, sex, culture, and mental disorders. When it comes to mental disorders, like autism,

nonverbal communication is even more important in that persons day-to-day life. A study found

that children aged three and older with autism requested more nonverbal attention than children

who do not suffer from autism (DiLavore and Lord, 1995). The study of nonverbal

communication and how it can be used to help children and adults with autism is essential for the

future, especially with the rise in the number of cases in America.

Zach Fox of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal wrote an article about a robot who is helping

autistic children learn to communicate with their family and friends. Fox specializes in K-12 and

higher education for the Herald-Journal and has written for 11 publications during his career.

This review will discuss multiple ideas on how we are constantly searching for ways to

improve the nonverbal communication skills of children with autism. There are many different

methods being used: there is the robot in South Carolina, relational music therapy, and of course,

psychological programs. But before discussing how we are treating the disorder, I will explain

how scientific studies suggest that the disease is a genetically complex disorder.
 According to the Department of Human Genetics (2013), Autism spectrum disorders are

a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopemental disorders defined by impairments in language

and nonverbal communication, deficits in reciprocal social interactions and an excess of

restricted and repetitive behaviors (p. 226). The disease effects 9 out of every 1,000 children

according to the Centers for Disease Control. The disorder is continuing to affect more and more

children. That is why scientist and psychologist have continued to work to find ways to help

children who struggle with verbal communication, or have no verbal skills at all, find different

ways to communicate.

McCarthy Teszler is a special needs school located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The

school was built in the 1940s because the community felt that it needed to provide education for

those who would not get the kind of attention necessary at a public institution. The school

recently made news after introducing a robot named Milo. According to Fox (2017), Elena

Ghionis, Kylie McKinney and Kim Speer have been working with a robot named Milo to get

nonverbal students with autism spectrum disorders to better communicate and identify emotions

in other people.

The robot was created to help students who struggle with communicating to their family,

friends, and teachers. As technology changes and becomes more advanced, these educators have

come to the realization that children (especially) learn better when the lesson comes from

electronics. According to Ghionis students who have worked with Milo have also become more

comfortable using smart phones and iPads.

Estela Bicho, Luis Louro and Wolfram Erlhagen (2010) published a study for Frontiers in

Neurorobotics about a robot that spoke verbally and used hand gestures to signal to a teammate

what goals it wanted to accomplish.

 The results showed that each time the human reached for a part and grasped it, the robot

was able to understand what the human was asking for, then handed him that same part each

time. This practice showed that there are other ways for humans to practice their nonverbal skills

and it gives instant gratification for those who struggle with that aspect of communication.

Milo has this same kind of technology, but it is also capable of fulfilling the needs of

whatever that student is struggling with. According to Fox (2017), the robot can help students

control their emotions by leading them through calming exercises like counting to 10 or

squeezing a stress ball. Milos actions are controlled by the teacher on an iPad. The robot works

as a line of communication between the students and teacher. Seeing the robot react teaches the

children that their nonverbal actions were received, and it helps them calm down. According to

teacher Kylie McKinney, The best way to think about Milo is as a bridge between our world

and their world, theyre sometimes so entranced in technology, but Milo draws their attention up

to him (Fox, 2017).

These two examples show how technology can be used for more than entertainment.

Nonverbal communication is such a key part of our lives minute-to-minute and for some that is a

struggle. Some people cant find the words to say that theyre hurting or that theyre hungry or

frustrated. Milos success helps students like Josh Jackson, who struggled to recognize his own

emotions and the emotions of others (Fox, 2017).

According to Elena Ghionis, one of the teachers who uses the technology, not only has

Milo helped students who struggle with their emotions use techniques to calm down and to

recognize what they feel, but that emotion recognition has also helped them learn to

communicate verbally (Fox, 2017).

 Children with autism have difficulty recognizing the emotions of those around them, just

as they have difficulty expressing their own emotions. According to Foxs study (2017), Milo is

programmed to break down emotions into terms that are easier for children with autism to

understand. Rather than relating the concept in abstract terms, Milo describes the physical aspect

of emotions. For example, When youre happy, the sides of your mouth go up and your

eyebrows raise With them being so literal, theyll hear the sides of your mouth go up, and

theyll think, oh, happy (Fox, 2017).

Robots like Milo, are already showing the benefits of advancing technologically in the

world. But, there is still much research to be done. Amir Aly and Adriana Tapus are two of many

researchers who are attempting to improve on the science of robotics and human interaction. The

researchers did a study in 2012 on Prosody-Driven Robot Arm Gestures Generation in Human-

Robot Interaction. The research was to try and understand the natural communication strategies

of arm gestures that humans use in their daily interactions, in order to transfer them to robots

(Aly and Tapus, 2012).

They first analyzed the intensity and pitch curves of the voice signal. Part of their

analysis was studying the intensity of the curves. According to the reading, The inflection points

(i.e. zeros crossing points if the rate of change of the curve) of the pitch and intensity curves, and

the separating points between the voiced and the unvoiced parts of the voice signal are detected

(Aly and Tapus, 2012). After doing the research, the pair divided them into five different

categories: high pitch/high intensity, high pitch/low intensity, low pitch/ high intensity, low

pitch/low intensity, and an unvoiced segment.

 The second part of the research was to study how humans use arm gestures to

communicate nonverbally. They again, divided them into five different categories and combined

them in much the same way (i.e. high pitch and high roll, high yaw and high roll). The study

found that the arm gestures and audio matched 55% of the time.

According to an article by Chung-Hsin Chiang, Wei-Tsuen Soong, Tzu-Ling Lin, and

Sally Rogers in the Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders (2008), researchers have set

out to examine how children with autism communicate, both verbally and nonverbally. The study

revealed that these kids have trouble with managing joint attention and with social interaction,

two things that are important in a classroom setting (Chiang, Soong, Lin, & Rogers, 2008).

One of the ways the study found effective in helping children with autism learn to

function in the classroom is with the Denver Model (Chiang et al., 2008, p. 1905). The Denver

Model is a comprehensive, early intervention approach to for children with autism as young as

12 months. As stated before, autistic children struggle with communication and relationships. So,

the main strategy of the Denver model is for children to play. Chiang believed that playing with

others would help these children become better communicators, and would help them learn to

socialize with others.

What a person can take away from the article that I reviewed and all of the research

articles that I picked apart is that nonverbal communication affects all of us and it for each of us

it means something different. From culture-to-culture, nonverbal communication can be vastly

different. Something as simple as eye contact or how we greet a friend or colleague is different

and dependent on what part of the world youre in.

 What we are seeing today, in this country, and for this small percentage of nonverbal

communication is that technology is expanding and is helping to inform and educate those who

must deal with this disability. I suggested that the study of nonverbal education was important to

our future because of the rising number of those diagnosed as autistic. What I learned along the

way is that we are working to achieve just that. In South Carolina, a robot is helping children

who struggle with the ability to communicate both verbally and nonverbally. Not being able to

communicate your feelings can be frustrating and now there is technology to help with that.

Estela Bicho, Luis Louro and Wolfram Erlhagens work with neurorobotics has proven

that we can even teach machines to communicate nonverballywhich is great, but not enough.

The thing that was missing in my research, was the lack of evidence that educators and scientist

are working to help every student and child the importance of the communication that we use the

most.

Researchers and educators are trying in multiple ways to improve the lives of these

children with autism. There is new research that comes out every year; not discussed in this was

the way that they are using musical therapy to help with communication. There are vast studies

and so much we still dont know about autism that we must continue in the effort to tackle this

disorder.

The implications of these studies have led to more children being able to communicate

verbally thanks to early intervention programs. The numbers are still not high enough. We have

come a long way from learning that something as simple as playing or giving children joint

attention to robots who help them with their communication skills. These things alone prove that

as long as continue to fight this disorder with research and education, we someday may see

autism as only a slight setback in the lives of children.

 Works Cited

Amir, A., & Tapus, A. (March 5-8, 2012). Prosody-Drive Robot Arm Gestures Generation in

Human-Robot Interaction. IEE Press,

http://ezproxy.missouriwestern.edu:2063/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=43ff75ae-1f02-

4956-9255-1acb2d85650e%40sessionmgr103&vid=7&hid=116

Bich, E., & Louro, L., & Wolfram, E. (May 21, 2010) Integrating Verbal and Nonverbal

Communication in a Dynamic Neural Field Architecture for Human-Robot Interaction,

Frontiers in Neurorobotics,

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbot.2010.00005/full

Chiang, C. & Soong, W. & Lin, T. & Rogers, S. (May 20, 2008) Nonverbal Communication

Skills in Young Children with Autism, Springer Science and Business Media

Fox, Z. (2017, April 22) Robot helps autistic students at McCarthy Teszler bridge

communication barriers, Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

www.goupstate.com

Lu, A. & Yoon, J. & Geschwind, D. & Cantor, R. (November 22, 2011) QTL replication and

targeted association highlight the nerve growth factor gene for nonverbal communication

deficits in autism spectrum disorders, Molecular Psychiatry, Macmillan Publishers