The Modified- Classroom ObservationScheduletoMeasureIntenticnaCommunication( M-COSMIC): EvaluationofReliabilityandValidity

Modified COSMIC 27

Finally, motivation for the development of measures such as the COSMIC (Pasco et al.,
2008) and its currently modified form has come largely from the need for sensitive tools to
evaluate the change brought about by interventions, and further, the extent to which targeted
change might generalize to real world settings. The COSMIC yielded promise in its original
form, and while the current modifications suggest utility of this instrument to measure intentional
communication in groups of children with ASD of wider-ranging abilities, the current study has
not attempted to use the M-COSMIC as a measure of change in behaviour over time or following
intervention. Furthermore, use of the M-COSMIC in a longitudinal study may enable observation
and interpretation of developmental links between different functions of communicative act,
along with comprehension of associations between such functions across measures, serving to
clarify certain unexpected results from the current study. For example, weak associations
between the M-COSMIC and ADOS joint attention behaviours might be shown to be stronger
over time (or within higher-functioning subgroups of children).

Summary

The M-COSMIC shows promiseas an ecologically valid measure of a child’s early skills
within a naturalistic classroom setting with a teacher and small group of peers. The current
modification means that the measure is now more suitable for use in measuring social
communication in children with ASD with a much broader range of verbal ability than was
feasible with the original COSMIC (Pasco et al., 2008).The measure could be useful in providing
additional information about a child’s communication skills within the real world setting of the
classroom, supplementing information collected in a clinical setting or via parent report. Such an
instrument would have important uses both in research and applied practices. With further
development, the M-COSMIC may be demonstrated to be a useful measure of treatment

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