Open AccessExploring Growth in Expressive Communication of Infants and Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Author(s) -
Jay Buzhardt,
Anna Wallisch,
Dwight Irvin,
Brian A. Boyd,
Brenda Salley,
Junwei Fan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of early intervention
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.814
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 2154-3992
pISSN - 1053-8151
DOI - 10.1177/1053815121995578
Subject(s) - autism spectrum disorder , psychology , autism , intervention (counseling) , language delay , developmental psychology , typically developing , expressive language , gesture , social communication , language development , nonverbal communication , audiology , medicine , psychiatry , computer science , computer vision
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 patterns of infants and toddlers with ASD to growth benchmarks of a standardized language assessment. We conducted a retrospective analysis of growth on the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) of 23 infants and toddlers who received an ASD diagnosis in the future. At 42 months of age, children with ASD had significantly lower rates of gestures, single words, and multiple words, but significantly higher rates of nonword vocalizations. Children with ASD had significantly slower growth of single and multiple words, but their rate of vocalization growth was significantly greater than benchmark. Although more research is needed with larger samples, because the ECI was designed for practitioners to monitor children's response to intervention over time, these findings show promise for the ECI's use as a progress monitoring measure for young children with ASD. Limitations and the need for future research are discussed.