Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have conversation deficits, yet the growth of conversation abilities is understudied, especially in Chinese-speaking populations. Little is known about whether their parents' verbal responsiveness and redirectives are related to their conversation skills. Children with ASD (N=37; M=5;5) and their parents contributed their language samples. These children interacted with their parents at four time points over nine months. The number of conversational turns and the proportion of child-initiated conversation (but not the proportion of children's appropriate responses) grew over nine months. After controlling for time, autism severity, and language skills, parents' verbal responsiveness positively predicted children's appropriate responses. Parents' redirectives negatively predicted the proportion of children's appropriate responses and the number of conversational turns.
Highlights
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in conversation skills, yet the growth of conversation abilities is understudied, especially in Chinese-speaking populations, whose autism rates are rising
Our findings showed that the number of conversational turns and the proportion of child-initiated conversation grew over the course of nine months
Some but not all aspects of conversation skills grew over nine months in Chinese-speaking children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Summary
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in conversation skills, yet the growth of conversation abilities is understudied, especially in Chinese-speaking populations, whose autism rates are rising. Compared to children without ASD, these children were found to have difficulties in expanding conversational topics, maintaining appropriate and relevant topics, and engaging in turn-taking, resulting in little reciprocal conversation (BaumingerZviely & Agam-Ben-Artzi, 2014; Capps, Kehres, & Sigman, 1998; Jones & Schwartz, 2009; Lam & Yeung, 2012; Losh & Capps, 2003) These deficits persist when these children become adolescents (e.g., Adams, Green, Gilchrist, & Cox, 2002; Koning & Magill-Evans, 2001; Paul, Orlovski, Marcinko, & Volkmar, 2009; Philofsky, Fidler, & Hepburn, 2007). Of these studies, Paul et al (2009) identified three major pragmatic difficulties: topic management, quantity and type of information provided, and reciprocity
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