We reexamined the efficacy of Pathways early autism intervention using generalized measures of social communication and language skills administered by an unfamiliar adult in a novel environment. Generalized measures improve on sources of measurement bias. Sixty-seven autistic children blocked on age (under versus over 3 years) were randomly…

Purpose: Toddlers with Down syndrome (DS) showcase comparable or higher rates of gestures than chronological age-- and language-matched toddlers without DS. Little is known about how gesture use in toddlers with DS relates to multiple domains of development, including motor, pragmatics, language, and visual reception (VR) skills. Unexplored is…

Purpose: Estimating the sequential associations between educators' and children's talk during language learning interactions requires careful consideration of factors that may impact measurement stability and resultant inferences. This research note will describe a preliminary study that used generalizability theory to understand the contribution…

Background: Individuals with developmental language disorder or Williams syndrome are reported to use more gestures than individuals with typical development. However, these two groups differ considerably in visuospatial and language skills, two skills that are hypothesized to shape gesture rate. Aims: We first examined whether children with both…

This study examined the dimensionality of caregivers' child-directed talk and the association of child directed talk and children's language skills at age of 3 years in a sample of 63 low-SES dyads in low-SES homes. Exploratory factor analysis identified that caregivers' child directed talk is characterized by two dimensions: quantity and…

Grounded in the biopsychosocial models of expressive language in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS), this dissertation included two novel studies that examined the role of biological (i.e., physiology), psychological (i.e., autistic traits, anxiety symptoms, and child affect) and social (i.e., communication partner…

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…

Purpose: Caregivers of autistic children present with high stress levels, which have been associated with poorer child outcomes in several domains, including language development. However, prior to this study, it was unknown whether elevated caregiver stress was associated with language development in infant siblings of autistic children…

There has been a resurgence in concern about the levels of pupils' oral language skills at school entry. To support and develop these skills effectively an understanding of the key components of oral language is required. We examined the oral language skills of monolingual children in Reception (M[subscript Age] = 57.9 months; n = 126) and Year 1…

In many autistic children, speech onset is delayed and expressive language emerges after 3 years of age. We qualitatively and quantitatively describe oral productions of autistic preschoolers, including many non- or minimally speaking, recorded during interactions with a caregiver and with an experimenter. Data clustering on manually coded oral…

This study examined an insufficiently studied predictor of functional language, social motivation, in a group of 87 young children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants (age 14-31 months at the start of the study) were assessed at four times over 24 months. We tested total and indirect associations between early social motivation and later…

Intentional communication is a correlate of later language in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A meta-analysis on two pragmatic functions of intentional communication acts (ICAs) suggested that declarative ICAs (used to comment) are correlated with language skills, but did not provide clear evidence regarding the association of…

Although it has been found that autistic children exhibit delays in executive function abilities and atypical patterns of attention, less is known about the relationship between executive function and attention abilities and social and language skills in early childhood. In this study, 180 autistic children, age 2-8 years, participated in a study…

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…

Aggression in early childhood has been found to predict negative outcomes later in life, including delinquency and psychopathology. The present study explored associations between young children's language, self-regulation, and physical aggression. A community sample of 126 preschool children aged 3 to 6 years (M = 4.87 years, SD = 0.87; 59% boys)…