Typically developing children start using words around age 1 and develop conversational ability by 18 to 24 months. In autism, these communicative behaviors are delayed and impaired to varying degrees. Affected areas of language development include articulation, word use, syntax and morphology, echolalia (repetition with similar intonation of words/phrases someone else has said), and confusion of personal pronouns. Further research must address deficits in ability to process information about social situations, as this is most likely behind the communication disorders in autism. 


Keywords:

autism;
communication development;
language development

Language and communication in autism

Applied behavior analysts have focused on how adults can influence the problem behavior of children using a variety of behavior modification strategies. A related question, virtually unexplored, is how the behavior problems of children influence adults. This child-effects concept was explored empirically in a study involving 12 adults who were asked to teach four pairs of children in which one member of the pair exhibited problem behavior and the other typically did not. Results demonstrated that problem children displayed tantrums, aggression, and self-injury contingent on adult instructional attempts but not at other times, whereas nonproblem children showed little or no problem behavior at any time. Importantly, from a child-effects perspective, adults engaged in teaching activities with nonproblem children more often than with problem children. Also, when an adult worked with a problem child, the breadth of instruction was more limited and typically involved those tasks associated with lower rates of behavior problems. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to theories of escape behavior, current assessment practices, and intervention issues related to maintenance. The existence of child effects suggests that problem behavior may be better understood when it is conceptualized as involving a process of reciprocal influence between adult and child.

The effects of severe behavior problems in children on the teaching behavior of adults.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses parent–child interactions for young children with disabilities. A major focus of the research on parent–child interactions has been to document what characteristics of parental interactive behavior promote and enhance child developmental outcomes, both short term and long term. The primary focus in this chapter is on the studies with children with disabilities or those at risk for developmental delay. Some of the literature based on the samples of children, who are typically developing, is also included in the discussion to highlight the major themes and issues and to provide comparison groups. The chapter describes selected studies with five populations of children, those with: (a) Down syndrome or mental retardation, (b) developmental delay, (c) orthopedic or motor impairments or cerebral palsy, (d) autism, and (e) low birth weight. Also, the focus is on the studies of behavioral interactions but not on parenting beliefs or attitudes. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of intervention studies with young children with disabilities or delays aimed at promoting positive parent–child interactions.

Parent-child interactions when young children have disabilities

Thirty-four toddlers with autism and their mothers participated in an early intervention targeting joint engagement Across the 24 intervention sessions, any significant distress episode in the child was coded for emotion regulation outcomes including child negativity, child emotion self-regulation, and mother emotion co-regulation Results revealed that emotion regulation strategies by both mother and child were employed during distress episodes An effect of intervention was found such that children decreased their expression of negativity across the intervention and mothers increased their emotional and motivational scaffolding The results of this study indicate a positive effect of an intervention targeting joint engagement on emotion co-regulation outcomes

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The Co-Regulation of Emotions Between Mothers and their Children with Autism

The play interactions of family members towards children with autism were examined in the current study. Siblings, mothers, and fathers of nine families of a child with autism were observed in dyadic play interactions with the child. Results revealed that mothers and fathers exhibited more play behaviors towards children with autism than siblings, while the children with autism initiated more interactions towards siblings than towards parents. Vineland scale scores were correlated with parental behaviors and the initiations of children with autism towards parents. Results suggest that parents may compensate for their child's disability level by initiating more play interactions. Implications include teaching parents how to pace play interactions to allow children with autism to initiate play interactions.

Play interactions of family members towards children with autism.

The relationship between autistic children's level of functioning and maternal speech to children was examined. Ten higher functioning verbal and 10 lower functioning nonverbal children were videotaped in a 15-minute interaction with their mothers. Results revealed that mothers of the higher functioning verbal children asked more questions, used more language modeling, gave more reinforcement for language, and answered more children-initiated questions than did mothers of the lower functioning nonverbal children. Mothers of the nonverbal children employed more directives, used shorter mean lengths of utterance, and reinforced their children's motoric rather than spoken behavior. Far from being poor models for linguistic behavior, mothers of autistic children appear, therefore, to be quite responsive to their children's relative capabilities.

Ann E. McCabe

Papers

Maternal speech to verbal and higher functioning versus nonverbal and lower functioning autistic children.

Conditional statements in young children's spontaneous speech.

Differential language learning styles in young children: The importance of context☆