Abstract
This study has examined the link between social information processing (SIP) and socio-emotional regulation (SER) in 45 children with intellectual disability (ID) and 45 typically developing (TD) children, matched on their developmental age. A Coding Grid of SER, focusing on Emotional Expression, Social Behaviour and Behaviours towards Social Rules displayed by children in three dyadic contexts (neutral, competitive or cooperative) was applied. Correlational analyses highlighted specific “bi-directional” links between some abilities in SIP and in SER, presenting between-groups partial similarities and dissimilarities that allowed discussing the developmental delay versus difference hypotheses in ID children. Cluster cases analyses identified subgroups with variable patterns of links. In both groups, the SIP and some categories of SER varied depending on developmental age.
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Notes
These levels of intellectual efficiency express the position of the subject considered in the distribution of the children of the same age, returned by convention to an average = 100 and in a standard deviation = 15″ (Perron-Borelli 1996, p. 88).
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Scientific Fund of Research of the Catholic University of Louvain and by the Fund of Chair Baron Frère in Special Education.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 10.
Appendix 2
Scoring of the coding grid of socio-emotional regulation by sequences
Observation of 22 items | ||
|---|---|---|
Code | Scores | |
+ | Very frequent | 3 |
/ | Moderately frequent | 2 |
– | Infrequent | 1 |
0 | Non-existent | 0 |
Minimum and maximum scores in the coding grid of socio-emotional regulation by sequences
| Contexts of interactive game | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dyads | Child–adult | Child–child | Child–child | Total cross-cat. % | |||
Contexts | Neutral | Competitive | Cooperative | ||||
Socio-emotional regulation | Minimum score | Maximum score | Minimum score | Maximum score | Minimum score | Maximum score | |
Category 1 | |||||||
Emotional expressions/adaptation | 0 | 216 | 0 | 216 | 0 | 216 | 648 |
Category 2 | |||||||
Child’s behaviour towards social rules | 0 | 90 | 0 | 90 | 0 | 90 | 270 |
Category 3 | |||||||
Child’s social behaviour | 0 | 90 | 0 | 90 | 0 | 90 | 270 |
Total cross-contexts |
| 396 |
| 396 | 396 | ||
Total coding grid | 1188 | ||||||
% |
| ||||||
Appendix 3
Clinical Vignette: The Case of Jessica
Jessica is 7 years and 7 months old and comes from a French-speaking Belgian special school. The aetiology of her intellectual disabilities corresponds to non-specific retardation due to environmental under-stimulation (See Table 11).
Jessica presents a mild intellectual disability, as indicated by levels of verbal and non-verbal intellectual efficiency.Footnote 1 Although her verbal and non-verbal developmental age are nearly the same, Jessica presents a lower level of verbal intellectual efficiency than of non-verbal intellectual efficiency. Moreover, her cognitive profile is heterogeneous in terms of developmental age obtained in distinct scales. Her strengths correspond to abilities in vocabulary and in classification of pictures, while her weaknesses are situated particularly in abilities in “practical adaptation”, because she has difficulties in mobilizing her reasoning and logical thinking (See Table 12).
In terms of the components of social information processing, Jessica displays very good performances in ToM and in social problem-solving (in RES and in 13 SEPS). More specifically, with regard to her abilities in ToM, Jessica understands the consequences of emotions better than the causes of emotions: in other words, she finds it easier to understand well-adjusted behaviour according to the emotion felt by the character in the stories than the type of emotions that the character might feel according to the situation. Her difficulties particularly concern the causes of fear and of anger. With regard to her performances in social problem-solving in RES, Jessica finds it easier to identify and justify appropriate social behaviours than inappropriate social behaviours in illustrated social situations.
In terms of her skills in socio-emotional regulation, Jessica displays very frequent behaviours which take account of social rules, whatever the context (she “listens/follows to the instructions”; “is patient”; “displays listening behaviour”; and “moderates her externalized behaviour”). However, she does not express her emotions very much (specifically in competitive neutral contexts) and she displays moderately social behaviours whatever the context (displaying “some socio-extravert behaviour”, “empathy behaviour” and “attentive behaviour”, “persevering to reach her goals” and “controlling difficulty”). Jessica expresses her emotions and social behaviour in non-verbal ways; this could be because her non-verbal skills in cognitive development are better than her verbal skills.
We suggest that Jessica has good abilities in social information processing, which particularly helps her to behave in accordance with social rules (such as following or listening to instructions) during interactions with adults and peers, but does not help her to express her emotions according to the social climate. Either Jessica has difficulties in expressing her emotions, or she is developing the ability to dissimulate her emotions. This could be explored in her daily life.
This profile shows that a child with intellectual disability who is able to process social information may present variability in socio-emotional regulation (in emotional expression, social behaviour and behaviour with respect to social rules), and emphasizes the clinical interest of assessing these processes in order to define individualized intervention objectives.
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Baurain, C., Nader-Grosbois, N. Theory of Mind, Socio-Emotional Problem-Solving, Socio-Emotional Regulation in Children with Intellectual Disability and in Typically Developing Children. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 1080–1097 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1651-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1651-4