Assessing receptive verb knowledge in late talkers and autistic children: advances and cautionary tales

PURPOSE

Using eye-tracking, we assessed the receptive verb vocabularies of age-matched late talkers and typically developing children (experiment 1) and autistic preschoolers (experiment 2). We evaluated how many verbs participants knew and how quickly they processed the linguistic prompt. Our goal is to explore how these eye-gaze measures can be operationalized to capture verb knowledge in late talkers and autistic children.

METHOD

Participants previewed two dynamic scenes side-by-side (e.g., "stretching" and "clapping") and were then prompted to find the target verb's referent. Children's eye-gaze behaviors were operationalized using established approaches in the field with modifications in consideration for the type of stimuli (dynamic scenes versus static images) and the populations included. Accuracy was calculated as a proportion of time spent looking to the target, and linguistic processing was operationalized as latency of children's first look to the target.

RESULTS

In experiment 1, there were no group differences in the proportion of verbs known, but late talkers required longer to demonstrate their knowledge than typically developing children. Latency was predicted by age but not language abilities. In experiment 2, autistic children's accuracy and latency were both predicted by receptive language abilities.

CONCLUSION

Eye gaze can be used to assess receptive verb vocabulary in a variety of populations, but in operationalizing gaze behavior, we must account for between- and within-group differences. Bootstrapped cluster-permutation analysis is one way to create individualized measures of children's gaze behavior, but more research is warranted using an individual differences approach with this type of analysis.

Parent Certainty and Consistency When Completing Vocabulary Checklists in Young Autistic Children

PURPOSE

Using a novel parent report measure, this study investigated whether asking parents to rate their certainty when reporting on child vocabulary skills provided additional insight into parent report and emerging language abilities in young autistic children. Specifically, we investigated whether parent certainty varied based on whether the child was reported to understand, understand and say, or neither understand nor say the word and whether standardized measures of expressive and receptive language abilities and/or autistic traits predicted parent certainty. Lastly, we investigated whether certainty was associated with inconsistency in parent report of child word knowledge.

METHOD

Twenty-one parents and their autistic children ages 2-5 years participated. One parent per child completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI) Words and Gestures form and a custom vocabulary checklist including 24 object nouns from the MCDI. Within the custom form, parents indicated whether their child understood, understood and said, or neither understood nor said 24 target nouns and reported how certain they were about their responses using a 5-point scale. Expressive language, receptive language, and autistic traits were measured via direct assessment using standardized measures.

RESULTS

Parent certainty varied widely and was higher for words the parents reported the children understood and said compared to that for words children either understood or neither understood nor said. Certainty ratings were higher when a child had higher standardized receptive and expressive language scores. Lastly, parent certainty was associated with reporting consistency, clarifying previous findings of inconsistencies in parent report of child vocabulary.

CONCLUSION

Findings from this study indicate that measuring parent certainty provides critical information when assessing early vocabulary skills in autistic children.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23671497.

Exploring the Clinical Feasibility of Alternative Word-Understanding Measures for Autistic Children With Minimal Spoken Language

PURPOSE

The primary aim of this study was to explore the clinical feasibility of using alternate word-understanding assessment modalities for autistic children who have minimal verbal skills. Specifically, assessment duration, occurrence of disruptive behavior, and no-response trials were examined across three word-understanding assessment conditions: a low-tech condition, a touchscreen condition, and a condition that used real-object stimuli. A secondary aim was to examine the relationship between disruptive behavior and assessment outcomes.

METHOD

Twenty-seven autistic children between the ages of 3 and 12 years who had minimal verbal skills completed 12 test items on the three assessment conditions. Repeated-measures analyses of variance with post hoc Bonferroni procedures were used to describe and compare assessment duration, occurrence of disruptive behavior, and no-response trials across conditions. A Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between disruptive behavior and assessment outcomes.

RESULTS

The real-object assessment condition took significantly longer than the low-tech and touchscreen conditions. Participants engaged in disruptive behavior most frequently during the low-tech condition; however, differences among conditions were not significant. There were significantly more no-response trials in the low-tech condition than in the touchscreen condition. There was a significant, weak negative correlation between disruptive behavior and experimental assessment outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Results show there is promise in using real objects and touchscreen devices to assess word understanding in autistic children who have minimal verbal skills.

Assessing receptive verb knowledge in late talkers and autistic children: Advances and cautionary tales

Purpose

Using eye-tracking, we assessed the receptive verb vocabularies of late talkers and typically developing children (Experiment 1) and autistic preschoolers (Experiment 2). We evaluated how many verbs participants knew and how quickly they processed the linguistic prompt.

Method

Participants previewed two dynamic scenes side-by-side (e.g., "stretching" and "clapping") and were then prompted to find the target verb. Children's eye gaze behaviors were operationalized using established approaches in the field with modifications in consideration for the type of stimuli (dynamic scenes versus static images) and the populations included. Accuracy was calculated as a proportion of time spent looking to the target, and linguistic processing was operationalized as latency of children's first look to the target.

Results

In Experiment 1, there were no group differences in the proportion of verbs known, but late talkers required longer to demonstrate their knowledge than typically developing children. Latency was predicted by age but not language abilities. In Experiment 2, autistic children's accuracy and latency were both predicted by receptive language abilities.

Conclusion

Eye gaze can be used to assess receptive verb vocabulary in a variety of populations, but in operationalizing gaze behavior, we must account for between- and within-group differences. Bootstrapped cluster-permutation analysis is one way to create individualized measures of children's gaze behavior, but more research is warranted using an individual differences approach with this type of analysis. Finally, latency may not be a valid measure for dynamic scene stimuli for children under three years old.

Alternative receptive language assessment modalities and stimuli for autistic children who are minimally verbal

LAY ABSTRACT

It is difficult to measure language comprehension abilities in autistic children who have limited expressive language skills. Results from available assessments may underestimate autistic children's receptive language skills. The primary purpose of this study was to compare alternative modalities and stimuli used to measure receptive vocabulary skills in autistic children who are minimally verbal. This study compared participants' outcomes on three different receptive vocabulary assessment conditions: an assessment that used a low-tech stimulus book, a touchscreen assessment, and an assessment that used real-object stimuli. Twenty-seven students between the ages of 3 and 12 who had minimal verbal skills and a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder participated in this study. Results showed that participants' scores in the real-object assessment condition were significantly higher than in the low-tech condition and marginally higher than scores in the touchscreen condition. These results suggest real-object stimuli may provide a more robust measure of autistic children's receptive vocabulary skills than traditional low-tech picture stimuli. Although many direct standardized assessments use picture stimuli to measure word understanding, when assessing autistic individuals who have limited expressive language, real objects can be used in replacement of, or in addition to, picture stimuli.

Visual perceptual salience and novel referent selection in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Background & Aims

Many young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate striking delays in early vocabulary development. Experimental studies that teach the meanings of novel nonwords can determine the effects of linguistic and attentional factors. One factor that may affect novel referent selection in children with ASD is visual perceptual salience-how interesting (i.e., striking) stimuli are on the basis of their visual properties. The goal of the current study was to determine how the perceptual salience of objects affected novel referent selection in children with ASD and children who are typically developing (TD) of similar ages (mean age 3-4 years).

Methods

Using a screen-based experimental paradigm, children were taught the names of four unfamiliar objects: two high-salience objects and two low-salience objects. Their comprehension of the novel words was assessed in low-difficulty and high-difficulty trials. Gaze location was determined from video by trained research assistants.

Results

Contrary to initial predictions, findings indicated that high perceptual salience disrupted novel referent selection in the children with ASD but facilitated attention to the target object in age-matched TD peers. The children with ASD showed no significant evidence of successful novel referent selection in the high-difficulty trials. Exploratory reaction time analyses suggested that the children with autism showed "stickier" attention-had more difficulty disengaging (i.e., looking away)-from high-salience distracter images than low-salience distracter images, even though the two images were balanced in salience for any given test trial.

Conclusions and Clinical Implications

These findings add to growing evidence that high perceptual salience has the potential to disrupt novel referent selection in children with ASD. These results underscore the complexity of novel referent selection and highlight the importance of taking the immediate testing context into account. In particular, it is important to acknowledge that screen-based assessments and screen-based learning activities used with children with ASD are not immune to the effects of lower level visual features, such as perceptual salience.

The effect of cue type on directive-following in children with moderate to severe autism spectrum disorder

For this study, 11 children with moderate to severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were given directives containing prepositions in three cue conditions: (a) spoken alone, (b) a short video clip along with spoken cues, and (c) a sequence of three graphic symbols accompanied by spoken cues. Participants followed directives significantly more accurately with the video clip than with spoken cues only, and significantly more accurately with spoken cues only relative to the sequence of graphic symbols. Results suggest that the short video clip along with spoken cues may be an optimal mode for enhancing learners' ability to follow directives containing prepositions. In addition, results reveal three statistically significant correlations between participants' preexisting skills and directive-following accuracy: a positive correlation between spoken preposition preassessment total score and accuracy in the spoken-alone condition; a positive correlation between spoken noun preassessment total score and accuracy in the video-clip condition; and a positive correlation between ASD severity and the need for repetition in the video-clip condition. Results also suggested that, for children with more severe ASD symptoms, the video clips require repetitions so that the relationships illustrated within it can gain more semantic salience. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

A Path Model of Expressive Vocabulary Skills in Initially Preverbal Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

We examined direct and indirect paths involving receptive vocabulary and diversity of key consonants used in communication (DKCC) to improve understanding of why previously identified value-added predictors are associated with later expressive vocabulary for initially preverbal children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 87). Intentional communication, DKCC, and parent linguistic responses accounted for unique variance in later expressive vocabulary when controlling for mid-point receptive vocabulary, but responding to joint attention did not. We did not confirm any indirect paths through mid-point receptive vocabulary. DKCC mediated the association between intentional communication and expressive vocabulary. Further research is needed to replicate the findings, test potentially causal relations, and provide a specific sequence of intervention targets for preverbal children with ASD.