Introduction' Autism Spectrum Disorders ASD are a group of severe neuropsychiatric conditions charac

1
Forms and Functions of Early Communication in
ASD Longitudinal Data
Joslin Latz, A. Katherine Elliot, Rhea Paul,
Ph.D., Katarzyna Chawarska, Ph.D., Fred Volkmar,
M.D. Yale University Child Study Center
Introduction
Participants
Results, continued
Interpretation

• Toddlers with ASD are less likely than peers
  with TD to initiate communication. Their requests
  take a range of forms, both nonverbal and verbal,
  and in general they produce more requests in any
  form than peers. Over time they decrease their
  use of nonverbal requests and increase their use
  of verbal forms. However as multiword speech
  becomes available at T2, it is also used for
  noncommunicative self-talk.
• To summarize the communicative patterns seen
  here
• Toddlers with ASD use any and all forms of
  communication to request and the forms become
  somewhat more mature over time
• There is no similar expansion in other functions
  of communication.
• More mature forms emerge over time, but they
  are used for both requests and for
  non-communicative purposes.
• There is a decrease in the rate of
  non-communicative acts over time.
• However, this is not accompanied by an increase
  in use of joint attention or social interaction
  functions.
• Therefore the pattern of communication seen here
  shows
• an increase in maturity of forms used to request,
  
• an accompanying increase in the use of words for
  self-talk,
• no other change in the rate of communicative
  functions.
• Three year olds with ASD continue to use
  communication primarily for request. Functions.

• Introduction. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are
  a group of severe neuropsychiatric conditions
  characterized by disturbances in
• social interaction
• communicative function
• repetitive, stereotyped interests and
  activities.
• Recent research has provided the opportunity to
  make the diagnosis of ASD in the third year of
  life. There is little information on the
  longitudinal course of communicative development
  in this syndrome during the preschool years,
  although it is known that deficits in both
  language and communication are core features, and
  that language status at the end of the preschool
  period is highly related to long-term outcome.
• Purpose. This study presents data on the forms
  and functions of communicative behavior seen
  during a structured play interaction in children
  diagnosed with ASD prior to the third birthday
  (Time 1). These behaviors are compared to those
  seen in typically developing (TD) children of the
  same age in the same setting. In addition, the
  same setting is observed again when the children
  with ASD have passed their fourth birthday (Time
  2). Growth and change in the form and function of
  communicative behaviors are documented in this
  group.

All children were seen at the Yale Child Study
Center Developmental Disabilities Clinic for a
multi-disciplinary evaluation, including mentag
age assessment3..
Data on between-group differences.
Parents were interviewed about the childs
expressive language and adaptive skills on the
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales2 by a trained
research assistant during their visit .
Data on within-group differences
Results
Conclusions
Data on rates of communicative forms and
functions.

•  

Children with ASD are more likely than TDs to use
nonverbal vocal forms of expression at T1 this
tendency decreases at T2. However, there are no
differences between groups or times in their use
of multi-word acts, single word acts, or gestural
acts of communication. Children with ASD decrease
the use of nonverbal vocalization employed as
requests between T1 and T2 however, there is no
difference between groups or times in the use of
verbal or gestural forms of requests, or in the
use of single words, multiword or gestural acts
to express social or joint attentional
functions. At both T1 and T2 children with ASD
used significantly more multiword requests than
single word or gestural requests. These
differences were not seen in children with
TD. Chidlren with ASD decrease the amount of all
noncommunicative acts between T1 and T2, as well
as the number of noncommunicative vocalizations
between T1 and T2 BUT they increase the number of
multiword noncommunicative acts. Children with TD
show a higher rate of initiating communication
than those with ASD however, there is no
difference in the rate of responses, or
imitations.
References
Questions

1. What differences exist in the expression of
communicative function in typically developing
children and children with ASD at Time 1? 2. What
differences exist in the expression of
communicative function at Time 1 and Time 2 in
subjects with ASD?
1. Mundy, P., Delgado, C., Block, J., Venezia,
M., Hogan, A., Seibert, J. (2003). A manual for
the abridged Early Social Communication Scales
(ESCS). Retrieved April 6, 2006, from University
of Miami Web site http//www.psy.miami.edu/facult
y/pmundy/ESCS.pdf 2. Sparrow, S. S., Balla, D.
A., Cicchetti, D. V. (1984). Vineland adaptive
behavior scales Interview edition, survey form
manual. Circle Pines, Minn American Guidance
Service. 3. Mullen, E. (1995). Mullen Scales of
Early Learning. AGS Edition. Circle Pines, MN
American Guidance Serivce, Inc.
Procedures
Instrument. Researchers developed a coding scheme
to quantify the forms and functions of
communicative behavior and applied the coding
scheme to video records of subjects engaged in
the Early Social Communication Scales11 a
structured play protocol during which standard
probes are presented by a trained examiner. Data
Coding. To account for differences among subjects
in the number of times that each probe was
presented during the protocol, rates of
communicative expression are calculated by
dividing the number of times a particular
communicative expression occurred by the total
number of times probes were presented to the
subject.
Acknowledgements
Preparation of this poster was supported by
Research Grant P01-03008 funded by the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) by NIH
Research Grant U54 MH66494 funded by the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) the National
Institute on Deafness and Other Communication
Disorders the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development
and the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke by Research Grant RO1
DC07129 from the NIDCD by a MidCareer
Development grant to Dr. Paul, K24 HD045576
funded by NIDCD as well as by the National
Alliance for Autism Research.