One of the earliest indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is delay in language and social communication. Despite consensus on the benefits of earlier diagnosis and intervention, our understanding of the language growth of children with ASD during the first years of life remains limited. Therefore, this study compared communication growth…

This study investigated whether parent perceptions of their own and their child's levels of talkativeness were related to objective measures recorded via the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System. Parents of 258 children aged 7 to 60 months completed a questionnaire on which they rated how much they and their child talked. Six months…

Both naturalistic communication and parent-implemented interventions are evidence-based practices for young children with disabilities, but demonstrations of effective methods for teaching parents to implement naturalistic interventions successfully with their children are still warranted. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a…

The effects of a parent-coached language intervention on parent stress and its relation to parent perceptions of communication development were examined in 60 parents of toddlers with developmental delays. Results indicated that overall parent stress was not high prior to or following language intervention. Parents' perceptions about the severity…

A study tested the relationship between prelinguistic pragmatic functions and later expressive vocabulary of 58 toddlers with mild to moderate developmental delays. Results indicate that rate of joint attention and rate of communication were statistically significant predictors of later expressive vocabulary. Rate of behavior regulation was not a…