Brief Report: Parents’ Declarative Use of Deictic Gestures Predict Vocabulary Development in Infants at High and Low Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

A parent gesture intervention as a means to increase parent declarative pointing and child vocabulary

“…This result builds upon the previous study by Salo et al (2019) that reported concurrent associations between parent declarative points and child vocabulary comprehension scores at 12 months and demonstrates that this relation may extend to later ages (i.e., 18 months). Also, this result is consistent with a recent study by Choi et al (2021) that found parents’ use of declarative gestures at 12 months significantly predicted later vocabulary skills of infants at high and low familial risk for autism at 36 months. Of note, while our finding on the relation between parent declarative gesture use and child vocabulary comprehension is consistent with Salo et al (2019), Choi et al (2021) found that parent declarative gestures predicted later children's vocabulary production .…”

“…Also, this result is consistent with a recent study by Choi et al (2021) that found parents’ use of declarative gestures at 12 months significantly predicted later vocabulary skills of infants at high and low familial risk for autism at 36 months. Of note, while our finding on the relation between parent declarative gesture use and child vocabulary comprehension is consistent with Salo et al (2019), Choi et al (2021) found that parent declarative gestures predicted later children's vocabulary production . Although all three studies used the MB‐CDI, one difference across the studies is that children's vocabulary skills were measured at 12 months (Salo et al, 2019), 18 months (the current study), and 36 months (Choi et al, 2021).…”

“…Of note, while our finding on the relation between parent declarative gesture use and child vocabulary comprehension is consistent with Salo et al (2019), Choi et al (2021) found that parent declarative gestures predicted later children's vocabulary production . Although all three studies used the MB‐CDI, one difference across the studies is that children's vocabulary skills were measured at 12 months (Salo et al, 2019), 18 months (the current study), and 36 months (Choi et al, 2021). Thus, it is possible that when children are producing little language during the first two years of life, their vocabulary comprehension scores are more reliable than vocabulary production, and as children get older, their productive vocabulary becomes a reliable measure, and the effect of parent declarative points on vocabulary production becomes evident by 36 months.…”

“…These pointing gestures were then coded more specifically for the current analysis, as whether they were used declaratively or imperatively based on context (e.g., speech associated with gesture, referent of gesture). Following previous work (Choi et al, 2021; Salo et al, 2019), we coded gestures as declarative when they were used to share information or attention to an object, person, and event in the environment or coded gestures as imperative when they were used to direct or control a partner's behavior (Table 1 for definitions and examples). Independent raters coded parent pointing gestures for a randomly selected 20% of the transcripts.…”

“…Salo et al (2019), for example, reported that mothers’ declarative, but not imperative, points related to concurrent receptive vocabulary in typically developing children at 12 months. Similarly, Choi et al (2021) found that parents’ declarative gesture use at 12 months predicted later vocabulary outcomes at 36 months in children at high and low familial risk for autism. Therefore, growing, albeit limited, evidence suggests that different intentions behind parent gestures may be related to child vocabulary development in typically and atypically developing populations.…”