Studies of language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been primarily focused on the influence of child-based factors such as autism traits, IQ, and initial language skills. Yet the findings of these studies are inconclusive. There has, moreover, been little research compared the relative influences of child-based factors with environmental factors, (e.g. parental inputs). The current study attempts to fill this research gap by examining a range of both child-based factors and parental inputs. We measured the structural language abilities manifested in parent-child interactions over four time points across nine months in 42 Chinese-speaking autistic children ( M = 57.42 months, SD = 11.39). Our results showed that children’s mean length of utterance (MLU), word types, and word tokens grew rapidly, but their development trajectories varied. Initial expressive language ability was a significant predictor of children’s language outcomes, while nonverbal IQ and autism traits did not relate to children’s language abilities when controlling for initial expressive language ability. Parents’ MLU, word tokens, and word types did not associate with children’s structural language abilities. The findings shed lights on the importance of one of the child-based factors in particular, that is, initial expressive language skills, in the language development of autistic children. Lay abstract Language impairment is one of the early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that alerts parents to take their children for early diagnosis and intervention. Little is known about how children’s autism traits, IQ, initial language abilities and parental inputs influence their language abilities. In addition, only a few studies have compared the relative influence of these factors. The present study addressed these issues by examining the structural language in parent-child spontaneous interactions. Forty-two Cantonese (Chinese)-speaking autistic children aged four to eight were recruited. Their expressive language skills grew rapidly more than 9 months, but their development trajectories varied. Initial expressive language ability is the only significant predictor of child language outcomes and language growth trajectories. In contrast, nonverbal cognition, autism traits, and parents’ input do not affect language outcomes in children with ASD. Therefore, early language intervention is crucial for autistic children at all severity and IQ levels.
Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have de cits in conversation skills, yet the growth of conversation abilities is understudied, especially in Chinese-speaking populations, whose autism rates are rising. Additionally, little is known about whether parents' verbal responsiveness (utterances that follow the child's focus of attention, actions, and communications) and redirectives (utterances that require the child to change the focus of attention) are related to their ASD children's elicitation of responses in a conversation. This study had two aims: 1) documenting the growth of conversation skills in Chinese-speaking preschool children with autism; 2) investigating the association between parents' verbal responsiveness and redirectives and the production of appropriate responses in the children with ASD and the number of conversational turns in the parent-child dyads.Method: Participants were taken from a larger intervention project for (Cantonese) Chinese-speaking individuals with ASD. Thirty-seven participants with ASD (32 males), average age ve to six years, and their parents, contributed their language samples. These children interacted with their parents at four time points over nine months. Each time, the parents and children played with a standard set of toys for 20 minutes. The severity of autism, cognitive functioning, and language abilities of the children were assessed before the collection of their language samples. Results: Our ndings showed that the number of conversational turns and the proportion of child-initiated conversation (but not the proportion of children's appropriate responses) grew over the course of nine months. After controlling for time, autism severity, and language skills, parents' verbal responsiveness positively predicted children's appropriate responses. Parents' redirectives negatively predicted the proportion of children's appropriate responses and the number of conversational turns.Limitations: Our language samples were collected from 37 children aged four to eight years. Even though they were followed at four time points, this is too small a sample and heterogeneity of language abilities is not observed along the lifespan in individuals with autism.Conclusions: Some but not all aspects of conversation skills grew over nine months in Chinese-speaking children with ASD. Parents' verbal responsiveness was positively related to the children's elicitation of appropriate responses. BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely recognized as a complex, heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition that affects about one in 54 individuals (Center for Disease Control, 2020). According to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychological Association; 2013), individuals with ASD have impairments in social communication and interaction, and they produce restricted and repetitive behaviors.Regarding social interaction, impairments in pragmatic speech appear across different language levels and ages along th...
Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in conversation skills, yet the growth of conversation abilities is understudied, especially in Chinese-speaking populations, whose autism rates are rising. Additionally, little is known about whether parents’ verbal responsiveness (utterances that follow the child’s focus of attention, actions, and communications) and redirectives (utterances that require the child to change the focus of attention) are related to their ASD children’s elicitation of responses in a conversation. This study had two aims: 1) documenting the growth of conversation skills in Chinese-speaking preschool children with autism; 2) investigating the association between parents’ verbal responsiveness and redirectives and the production of appropriate responses in the children with ASD and the number of conversational turns in the parent-child dyads. Method: Participants were taken from a larger intervention project for (Cantonese) Chinese-speaking individuals with ASD. Thirty-seven participants with ASD (32 males), average age five to six years, and their parents, contributed their language samples. These children interacted with their parents at four time points over nine months. Each time, the parents and children played with a standard set of toys for 20 minutes. The severity of autism, cognitive functioning, and language abilities of the children were assessed before the collection of their language samples. Results: Our findings showed that the number of conversational turns and the proportion of child-initiated conversation (but not the proportion of children’s appropriate responses) grew over the course of nine months. After controlling for time, autism severity, and language skills, parents’ verbal responsiveness positively predicted children’s appropriate responses. Parents’ redirectives negatively predicted the proportion of children’s appropriate responses and the number of conversational turns. Limitations: Our language samples were collected from 37 children aged four to eight years. Even though they were followed at four time points, this is too small a sample and heterogeneity of language abilities is not observed along the lifespan in individuals with autism.Conclusions: Some but not all aspects of conversation skills grew over nine months in Chinese-speaking children with ASD. Parents’ verbal responsiveness was positively related to the children’s elicitation of appropriate responses.
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