scholarly journals You may point, but do not touch: Impact of gesture-types and cognition on language in typical and atypical development

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Vulchanova ◽  
Joana Acha ◽  
Sara Ramos-Cabo ◽  
Valentin Vulchanov
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Atypical Development ◽  
One Year

We investigated whether two types of pointing hand features (index finger and open palm pointing) and three types of relation with the referent (manipulation, contact, no contact) similarly predict language in children with and without autism, and whether cognition mediates the longitudinal relationship between pointing and language development. Sixteen children with autism, thirteen children at high risk for autism, and eighteen typically developing children participated in an interactive gesture-elicitation task and were tested on standardized cognitive and expressive language batteries in a longitudinal design. Cognition was a significant and direct predictor of language skills in all groups. However, index finger pointing was a direct predictor of language in the autism group above and beyond cognition. In addition, index finger pointing total score and percentage of no contact pointing bids were key predictors of expressive language measured one year apart, once the effect of group, expressive language and cognition at Time 1 were controlled. Findings highlight the role of cognition in communicative development, but suggest a key role of index finder use in the longitudinal relationship between deictic gestures and language atypical development above and beyond cognition.

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).

scholarly journals It Takes All Kinds (of Information) to Learn a Language: Investigating the Language Comprehension of Typical Children and Children With Autism

2020 ◽  
pp. 096372142096940
Author(s):  
Letitia R. Naigles
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Social Abilities ◽  
Atypical Development

What factors influence children’s understanding of language in both typical and atypical development? In this article, I summarize findings from the Longitudinal Study of Early Language (LSEL), which has been following the talk, understanding, and interactions of typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. The LSEL has found not only group similarities in syntactic understanding and word-learning strategies but also within-group variability that correlates with other aspects of the children’s behavior. In particular, early linguistic knowledge and social abilities have both been shown to play independent roles in later talk and understanding. Thus, theoretical perspectives that highlight social compared with linguistic underpinnings to language development should be viewed as complementary rather than competing.

scholarly journals Identifying the signature of prospective motor control in children with autism

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Cavallo ◽  
Luca Romeo ◽  
Caterina Ansuini ◽  
Francesca Battaglia ◽  
Lino Nobili ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Phenotypic Marker ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Movement Data

AbstractFailure to develop prospective motor control has been proposed to be a core phenotypic marker of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, whether genuine differences in prospective motor control permit discriminating between ASD and non-ASD profiles over and above individual differences in motor output remains unclear. Here, we combined high precision measures of hand movement kinematics and rigorous machine learning analyses to determine the true power of prospective movement data to differentiate children with autism and typically developing children. Our results show that while movement is unique to each individual, variations in the kinematic patterning of sequential grasping movements genuinely differentiate children with autism from typically developing children. These findings provide quantitative evidence for a prospective motor control impairment in autism and indicate the potential to draw inferences about autism on the basis of movement kinematics.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Experiential Grammar in Narrative Discourse Between Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism

MANUSYA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jeamjai Jeeraumporn ◽  
Pattama Patpong
Keyword(s):  
Children With Autism ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Experiential Mode ◽  
Nominal Groups ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Verbal Processes

The objective of this study was to compare experiential grammar in the narrative discourse of thirty typically developing Thai children and thirty Thai children with autism in elementary grades 1 to 3. Data was compiled by asking subjects to tell a narrative discourse from a wordless storybook "A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog” (Mayer 1967). Data was analyzed based on the Systemic Functional Linguistics approach and focused on experiential mode of meaning concerned with the system of Transitivity. The results revealed that children with autism used fewer clause complexes and clause simplexes than typically developing children. For the system of Transitivity, it was found that children with autism used less modified nominal groups as the Participant especially in grade 2 and 3 and they used a smaller number and less variety of process types; used a lower percentage of mental, behavioral and verbal processes; and used a lower percentage of serial verb constructions. Children with autism, especially those in grades 2 and 3, used a smaller variety of circumstance types; and used a lower percentage of clauses with complex circumstances.

scholarly journals Recognition of Emotion from Facial Expressions with Direct or Averted Eye Gaze and Varying Expression Intensities in Children with Autism Disorder and Typically Developing Children

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Tell ◽  
Denise Davidson ◽  
Linda A. Camras
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Expression Intensity ◽  
Autism Disorder

Eye gaze direction and expression intensity effects on emotion recognition in children with autism disorder and typically developing children were investigated. Children with autism disorder and typically developing children identified happy and angry expressions equally well. Children with autism disorder, however, were less accurate in identifying fear expressions across intensities and eye gaze directions. Children with autism disorder rated expressions with direct eyes, and 50% expressions, as more intense than typically developing children. A trend was also found for sad expressions, as children with autism disorder were less accurate in recognizing sadness at 100% intensity with direct eyes than typically developing children. Although the present research showed that children with autism disorder are sensitive to eye gaze direction, impairments in the recognition of fear, and possibly sadness, exist. Furthermore, children with autism disorder and typically developing children perceive the intensity of emotional expressions differently.

Gestural symbolic strategies in children with Down syndrome

Gesture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-334
Author(s):  
Arianna Bello ◽  
Silvia Stefanini ◽  
Pasquale Rinaldi ◽  
Daniela Onofrio ◽  
Virginia Volterra
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Item Analysis ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Developmental Age ◽  
Representational Gestures

Abstract In early communicative development, children with Down syndrome (DS) make extensive use of gestures to compensate for articulatory difficulties. Here, we analyzed the symbolic strategies that underlie this gesture production, compared to that used by typically developing children. Using the same picture-naming task, 79 representational gestures produced by 10 children with DS and 42 representational gestures produced by 10 typically developing children of comparable developmental age (3;1 vs. 2;9, respectively) were collected. The gestures were analyzed and classified according to four symbolic strategies. The two groups performed all of the strategies, with no significant differences for either choice or frequency of the strategies used. The item analysis highlighted that some photographs tended to elicit the use of the same strategy in both groups. These results indicate that similar symbolic strategies are active in children with DS as in typically developing children, which suggests interesting similarities in their symbolic development.

scholarly journals Altered Metabolism of Mothers of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Control Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Hollowood-Jones ◽  
James B. Adams ◽  
Devon M. Coleman ◽  
Sivapriya Ramamoorthy ◽  
Stephan Melnyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Conjugated Molecules ◽  
Metabolic Analysis ◽  
Transsulfuration Pathway ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
One Carbon Metabolism

Abstract Background: Previous research studies have demonstrated abnormalities in the metabolism of mothers of young children with autism.Method: Metabolic analysis was performed on blood samples from 30 mothers of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD-M) and from 29 mothers of young typically-developing children (TD-M). Targeted metabolic analysis focusing on the folate one-carbon metabolism (FOCM) and the transsulfuration pathway (TS) as well as broad metabolic analysis were performed. Statistical analysis of the data involved both univariate and multivariate statistical methods.Results: Univariate analysis revealed significant differences in 5 metabolites from the folate one-carbon metabolism and the transsulfuration pathway and differences in an additional 48 metabolites identified by broad metabolic analysis, including lower levels of many carnitine-conjugated molecules. Multivariate analysis with leave-one-out cross-validation allowed classification of samples as belonging to one of the two groups of mothers with 93% sensitivity and 97% specificity with five metabolites. Furthermore, each of these five metabolites correlated with 8-15 other metabolites indicating that there are five clusters of correlated metabolites. In fact, all but 5 of the 50 metabolites with the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were associated with the five identified groups. Many of the abnormalities appear linked to low levels of folate, vitamin B12, and carnitine-conjugated molecules.Conclusions: Mothers of children with ASD have many significantly different metabolite levels compared to mothers of typically developing children at 2-5 years after birth.

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