Does Gestural Communication Influence Later Spoken Language Ability in Minimally Verbal Autistic Children?
Purpose: The current study examined the predictive role of gestures and gesture–speech combinations on later spoken language outcomes in minimally verbal (MV) autistic children enrolled in a blended naturalistic developmental/ behavioral intervention (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and...
| Published in: | Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 67; no. 7; pp. 2283 - 2297 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
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American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Jul2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=178362738&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 178362738 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10924388 1SM jtl: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research issn: 10924388 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2024 vid: 67 iid: 7 pid: 42 pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association artinfo: ui: 178362738 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00433 ppf: 2283 ppct: 14 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 889KB tig: atl: Does Gestural Communication Influence Later Spoken Language Ability in Minimally Verbal Autistic Children? aug: au: Valle, Chelsea La Lue Shen Shih, Wendy Kasari, Connie Shir, Stephanie Lord, Catherine Tager-Flusberg, Helen affil: Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Boston University, MA. Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, MA. Center for Autism Research & Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles. College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene. Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles. su: Play Autism in children Teaching methods Nonverbal communication Sign language Language acquisition Child behavior Research funding Academic medical centers Questionnaires Treatment effectiveness Multivariate analysis Descriptive statistics Speech disorders in children Delayed onset of disease Speech therapy Regression analysis sug: subj: Play Autism in children Teaching methods Nonverbal communication Sign language Language acquisition Child behavior Translation and Interpretation Services Research funding Academic medical centers Questionnaires Treatment effectiveness Multivariate analysis Descriptive statistics Speech disorders in children Delayed onset of disease Speech therapy Regression analysis ab: Purpose: The current study examined the predictive role of gestures and gesture–speech combinations on later spoken language outcomes in minimally verbal (MV) autistic children enrolled in a blended naturalistic developmental/ behavioral intervention (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation [JASPER] + Enhanced Milieu Teaching [EMT]). Method: Participants were 50 MV autistic children (40 boys), ages 54–105 months (M = 75.54, SD = 16.45). MV was defined as producing fewer than 20 spontaneous, unique, and socially communicative words. Autism symptom severity (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule–Second Edition) and nonverbal cognitive skills (Leiter-R Brief IQ) were assessed at entry. A natural language sample (NLS), a 20-min examiner–child interaction with specified toys, was collected at entry (Week 1) and exit (Week 18) from JASPER + EMT intervention. The NLS was coded for gestures (deictic, conventional, and representational) and gesture– speech combinations (reinforcing, disambiguating, supplementary, other) at entry and spoken language outcomes: speech quantity (rate of speech utterances) and speech quality (number of different words [NDW] and mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]) at exit using European Distributed Corpora Project Linguistic Annotator and Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts. Results: Controlling for nonverbal IQ and autism symptom severity at entry, rate of gesture–speech combinations (but not gestures alone) at entry was a significant predictor of rate of speech utterances and MLUw at exit. The rate of supplementary gesture–speech combinations, in particular, significantly predicted rate of speech utterances and NDW at exit. Conclusion: These findings highlight the critical importance of gestural communication, particularly gesture–speech (supplementary) combinations in supporting spoken language development in MV autistic children. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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