Subgroups of children with different speech profiles have been described however, little is known about the trajectories of speech development or stability of subgroups over time. This longitudinal study described both speech trajectories and subgroup stability of 22 autistic children, aged 2;0-6;11 years, over 12 months. Independent and…

This longitudinal study examined how receptive and expressive vocabulary assessments capture vocabulary development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children. Using mixed regression modelling, we explored when children with ASD significantly different from TD children. We also examined the variability…

This study compares the lexical composition of 118 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 12 to 84 months with 4626 vocabulary-matched typically developing toddlers with and without language delay, aged 8 to 30 months. Children with ASD and late talkers showed a weaker noun bias. Additionally, differences were identified in the…

Infants show shifting patterns of visual engagement to faces over the first years of life. To explore the adaptive implications of this engagement, we collected eye-tracking measures on cross-sectional samples of 10-25-month-old typically developing toddlers (TD;N = 28) and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD;N = 54). Concurrent language…

Typically developing (TD) infants could capitalize on social eye gaze and social contexts to aid word learning. Although children with autism disorder (AD) are known to exhibit atypicality in word learning via social eye gaze, their ability to utilize social contexts for word learning is not well understood. We investigated whether verbal AD…

Acquiring useful language by age 5 has been identified as a strong predictor of positive outcomes in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study examined the relationship between age of language acquisition and later functioning in children with ASD (n = 119). First word acquisition at a range of ages was probed for its…