Characterizing receptive vocabulary knowledge in minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder

Background: Delayed or impaired language skills are common characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, there is little research examining the receptive language profile in children with ASD, and even less is known about children with ASD who are minimally verbal. The current study aimed to characterize the receptive vocabulary profile of minimally verbal children with ASD and to examine whether this profile differs from their typically developing peers. Methods: Participants included 31 minimally verbal children with ASD, aged 60-118 months, who were reported to produce between 0-10 words, 124 typical developing toddlers, aged 9-14 months, who were matched on expressive vocabulary, and 124 typical developing toddlers, aged 8-18 months, who were matched on receptive vocabulary. Semantic and syntactic features of words that the children understood was examined using word-level responses from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al. 2007). Results: Minimally verbal children with ASD understood a greater proportion of verbs compared to both typically developing groups. In terms of semantic categories, multiple differences were found between the minimally verbal ASD group and the typically developing expressive vocabulary-matched group. Interestingly, when compared to the receptive vocabulary-matched group, only one difference was found. Conclusions: Minimally verbal children with ASD displayed a similar receptive vocabulary profile to typically developing toddlers who were matched on receptive vocabulary abilities despite large differences in expressive vocabulary knowledge, chronological age, and mental age. These findings suggest new insight for future research using receptive-vocabulary matched groups as a point of comparison. Additionally, future studies should examine early verb learning and processing in minimally verbal children with ASD

The underlying mechanism behind pragmatic deficits in children with autism: how fillers are related to social visual experience

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (autism) typically have deficits in pragmatic language skills. Adolescence is a time of dynamic social experiences when children form their own social groups and lead independent social lives. This increase in social complexity compared to earlier stages of development makes it even more difficult for children with autism to fit in with their peers. Most of what we know about pragmatic language skills in adolescents with autism is based off standardized assessments and questionnaires. To improve interventions for pragmatic language, we first need to better understand communication processes within the contexts they occur. We examined how the rate of fillers- uh and um- produced by children with autism is related to their visual experience. Fillers (e.g. uh and um) often serve specific pragmatic functions including maintaining control of the conversation and communicating uncertainty. Recent evidence suggests that adolescents with autism produce fillers at a lower rate compared to their typical developing peers, but there is still the question of what mechanism is underlying this difference. In this study we compare the relationship between pragmatic skills and visual experience during social interactions. Participants included six, 7-14 year-old children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Participants were separated into two-person groups engaging in a question-answer game focusing on initiating conversations while wearing a head mounted camera. We coded the first-person video duration of the conversation partner’s hands, body, face, and eyes in the participant’s visual field. We discuss the relationship between visual experience and the production of fillers. Examining this may help us find the underlying mechanism of decreased filler production in children with autism, as it has not been specifically studied in existing literature