Predicting Language in Children with ASD Using Spontaneous Language Samples and Standardized Measures

Thomas, Rebecca P.; Wittke, Kacie; Blume, Jessica; Mastergeorge, Ann M.; Naigles, Letitia R.

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05691-z

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Frontiers in Psychology 18 frontiersin.org social motivation nor attempted to test the complete theoretical model, we consider autism severity scores a parallel to social motivation (see also Naigles and Chin, 2015;Thomas et al, 2022), and our results showed that children with less social motivation were more repetitive. That is, they repeated sequences of words more as well as individual words more, either immediately or further along in the conversation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

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Say that again: Quantifying patterns of production for children with autism using recurrence analysis

Mankovich

Blume²,

Wittke³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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The current research study characterized syntactic productivity across a range of 5-year-old children with autism and explored the degree to which this productivity was associated with standardized measures of language and autism symptomatology. Natural language samples were transcribed from play-based interactions between a clinician and participants with an autism diagnosis. Speech samples were parsed for grammatical morphemes and were used to generate measures of MLU and total number of utterances. We applied categorical recurrence quantification analysis, a technique used to quantify patterns of repetition in behaviors, to the children’s noun-related and verb-related speech. Recurrence metrics captured the degree to which children repeated specific lexical/grammatical units (i.e., recurrence rate) and the degree to which children repeated combinations of lexical/grammatical units (i.e., percent determinism). Findings indicated that beyond capturing patterns shown in traditional linguistic analysis, recurrence can reveal differences in the speech productions of children with autism spectrum disorder at the lexical and grammatical levels. We also found that the degree of repeating noun-related units and grammatical units was related to MLU and ADOS Severity Score, while the degree of repeating unit combinations (e.g., saying “the big fluffy dog” or the determiner-adjective-adjective-noun construction multiple times), in general, was only related to MLU.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…We also build on the existing literature about language profiles in 4-to 8-year-old children with autism (see Van Santen et al, 2013;Thomas et al, 2022). For instance, Van Santen et al (2013) reported no difference in intra-turn self-repeats of words by autism diagnosis.…”

Section: Recurrence Captures Autism Symptomatologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Say that again: Quantifying patterns of production for children with autism using recurrence analysis

Mankovich

Blume²,

Wittke³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…Mixed results were frequently present in the literature (e.g., for biological sex [ Øien et al, 2018 ; Wallisch et al, 2021 ] and speech processing [ Liu et al, 2020 ; Pecukonis et al, 2021 ]). Part of these mixed, sometimes contradictory, findings may lie in the fact that studies used vastly different measures to assess language abilities which is likely to have effect on the language scores (e.g., Condouris et al, 2003 ; Kasari et al, 2013 ; Luyster et al, 2008 ; Thomas et al, 2022 ). Many autistic children have difficulties with generalizing across contexts, and their language use may differ between different contexts (e.g., everyday language with a parent vs. a formal assessment with a professional) ( Nordahl-Hansen et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors associated with receptive and expressive language in autistic children and siblings: A systematic review

Muès,

Schaubroeck,

Demurie

et al. 2024

Autism & Developmental Language Impairments

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Background & aims Language abilities of autistic children and children at elevated likelihood for autism (EL-siblings) are highly heterogeneous, and many of them develop language deficits. It is as of yet unclear why language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings vary, although an interaction of multiple influential factors is likely at play. In this review, we describe research articles that identify one or multiple of such factors associated with the receptive or expressive language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings since the introduction of the DSM-5. Our aim was to identify and summarize factors that are linked to language development in autistic children and siblings in the recent literature to ultimately gain insight into the heterogeneity of language abilities in these children. Methods The search strategy of this review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The following databases were consulted: Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus. Inclusion criteria for studies were the presence of a sample of autistic children no older than 7 years old who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder per the criteria of the DSM-5. Intervention studies and studies without an explicitly reported language measure were excluded. Risk of bias assessment was completed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scales. Ultimately, 55 articles were included in this review. Main contribution Fifty-six factors were identified to be related to receptive or expressive language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings. They were grouped into three main categories: biological factors; psychosocial and environmental factors; and age-related and developmental factors, each with different subcategories. Although many of the identified variables were only examined in one article, some well-researched associated factors were reported across multiple studies and were present in both autistic children and EL-siblings, in particular joint attention, nonverbal cognitive abilities and frontal EEG power. Better insight in these factors associated with language abilities in autistic children and siblings at elevated likelihood can inform future intervention strategies to reduce language deficits and its corresponding negative consequences in these children. Conclusions Our results confirm that multiple different factors likely underlie language deficits in autism. Important aspects that should be considered are, among others, social factors such as joint attention, child characteristics such as nonverbal cognition, and neurocognitive factors.

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“…Part of these mixed, sometimes contradictory, findings may lie in the fact that studies used vastly different measures to assess language abilities which is likely to have effect on the language scores (see e.g. Condouris, et al (2003), Kasari, et al (2013), Luyster, et al (Luyster et al, 2008 and Thomas, et al (Thomas et al, 2022)). This underscores the need for uniform language assessment to make cross-study comparisons possible.…”

Section: Mixed Findings and Language Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Associated with Receptive and Expressive Language in Autistic Children and Siblings: A systematic review

Mues

Schaubroeck

Demurie

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background Language abilities of autistic children and children at elevated likelihood for autism (EL-siblings) are highly heterogeneous, and many of them develop language deficits. It is as of yet unclear why language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings vary, although an interaction of multiple influential factors is likely at play. In this review, we describe research articles that identify one or multiple of such factors associated with the receptive or expressive language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings since the introduction of the DSM-5. Aims Our aim was to identify and summarize factors that are linked to language development in autistic children and siblings in the recent literature to ultimately gain insight into the heterogeneity of language abilities in these children. Method The search strategy of this review followed the PRISMA guidelines. The following databases were consulted: Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus. Inclusion criteria for studies were the presence of a sample of autistic children no older than seven years old who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder per the criteria of the DSM-5. Intervention studies and studies without an explicitly reported language measure were excluded. Risk of bias assessment was completed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scales. Ultimately 54 articles were included in this review. Results 56 factors were identified to be related to receptive or expressive language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings. They were grouped into three main categories: biological factors; psychosocial and environmental factors; and age-related and developmental factors, each with different subcategories. Although many of the identified variables were only examined in one article, some well-researched associated factors stood out, in particular joint attention, nonverbal cognitive abilities and frontal EEG power. Better insight in these factors shaping language abilities in autistic children and siblings at elevated likelihood can inform future intervention strategies to reduce language deficits and its corresponding negative consequences in these children Conclusions Our results confirm that multiple different factors likely underlie language deficits in autism. Important aspects that should be considered in such a model are, amongst others, social factors such as joint attention, child characteristics such as nonverbal cognition, and neurocognitive factors.

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Predicting Language in Children with ASD Using Spontaneous Language Samples and Standardized Measures

Cited by 5 publications

References 98 publications

Say that again: Quantifying patterns of production for children with autism using recurrence analysis

Say that again: Quantifying patterns of production for children with autism using recurrence analysis

Factors associated with receptive and expressive language in autistic children and siblings: A systematic review

Factors Associated with Receptive and Expressive Language in Autistic Children and Siblings: A systematic review

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