scholarly journals Characterizing the early vocabulary profiles of preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136236132097379
Author(s):  
Eileen Haebig ◽  
Eva Jiménez ◽  
Christopher R Cox ◽  
Thomas T Hills
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Minimally Verbal ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Sound Effects ◽  
Minimally Verbal Children

Children with autism spectrum disorder often have significant language delays. But do they learn language differently than neurotypical toddlers? We compared the lexical skills of 64 preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder to 461 vocabulary-size-matched typically developing toddlers. We also examined social features of verb knowledge using a novel collection of social ratings. Children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more verbs than typically developing toddlers. Children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more action and food words, while typically developing toddlers produced proportionally more animal, people words, and animal sounds and sound effects. Children with autism spectrum disorder also produced “mommy” and “daddy” at lower rates. We discuss how these differences may reflect an association between lexical development and weaknesses in social communication. Lay abstract Although preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder represent a significant portion of the autism spectrum disorder population, we have a limited understanding of and characterization of them. Although it is a given that their lexical profiles contain fewer words, it is important to determine whether (a) the words preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder produce are similar to the first words typically developing children produce or (b) there are unique features of the limited words that preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder produce. The current study compared the early word profiles of preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder to vocabulary-matched typically developing toddlers. Children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more verbs than typically developing toddlers. Also, children with autism spectrum disorder produced proportionally more action and food words, while typically developing toddlers produced proportionally more animal words, animal sounds and sound effects, and people words. Children with autism spectrum disorder also produced “mommy” and “daddy” at lower rates. Our findings identified several areas of overlap in early word learning; however, our findings also point to differences that may be connected to core weaknesses in social communication (i.e. people words). The findings highlight words and categories that could serve as useful targets for communication intervention with preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder.

Imitation Recognition by Minimally Verbal Young Children: A Comparison Between Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
pp. 108835762110350
Author(s):  
Gökhan Töret
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Minimally Verbal ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Minimally Verbal Children

Research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display limited imitation recognition behaviors in comparison with typically developing children. However, the levels of imitation recognition of minimally verbal children with ASD relative to those with developmental disabilities are unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare the imitation recognition behaviors of 20 minimally verbal children with ASD and 20 minimally verbal children with Down syndrome (DS) when imitated by an adult in a play context. Results showed that children with ASD display more limited imitation recognition than children with DS. These results indicate that children with ASD are weaker in displaying imitation recognition. On the contrary, both groups display an association between imitation recognition and a variety of play actions in both groups.

Vocalizations of minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder across the school year

Autism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moon Young Savana Bak ◽  
Joshua B Plavnick ◽  
Sarah M Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Minimally Verbal ◽  
Environment Analysis ◽  
School Year ◽  
Minimally Verbal Children

Little is known about the language trajectories of minimally verbal school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders. The present investigation conducted observations across two elementary schools over an entire school year to analyze the vocal language development of nine minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 6 and 10 years, and their educational service providers. A Language Environment Analysis™ device automatically recorded and disaggregated over 743 h of data on child vocalizations, and vocal interactions with adults. Vocalizations did not increase for eight of the nine participants, and conversational counts between participants and adults were near zero across the entire year. These results speak to the need for additional research examining language development and potential intervention strategies among minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder.

scholarly journals Investigating the relationship between language and picture understanding in children with autism spectrum disorder

Autism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calum Hartley ◽  
Alice Trainer ◽  
Melissa L Allen
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Minimally Verbal ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Picture Comprehension

Previous studies report that minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder show impaired picture comprehension when matched to typically developing controls on language comprehension. Here, we compare both picture comprehension and picture production abilities in linguistically delayed children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing controls matched on language comprehension and language production. Participants were 20 children with autism spectrum disorder ( M age: 11.2 years) and 20 typically developing children ( M age: 4.4 years) matched on age equivalents for receptive language (autism spectrum disorder, M: 4.6 years; typically developing, M: 4.5 years) and expressive language (autism spectrum disorder, M: 4.4 years; typically developing, M: 4.5 years). Picture comprehension was assessed by asking children to identify the three-dimensional referents of line drawings. Picture production was assessed by asking children to create representational drawings of unfamiliar objects and having raters identify their referents. The results of both picture tasks revealed statistically equivalent performance for typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder, and identical patterns of performance across trial types. These findings suggest that early deficits in pictorial understanding displayed by minimally verbal individuals may diminish as their expressive language skills develop. Theoretically, our study indicates that development in linguistic and pictorial domains may be inter-related for children with autism spectrum disorder (as is the case for typical development).

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