Canonical babbling trajectories across the first year of life in autism and typical development.
Helen L Long, Gordon Ramsay, Edina R Bene and 8 others
PMID 38757642WHAT IT FOUND
Canonical babbling development was delayed in male autistic infants but not in female autistic infants.
Overall differences between groups were small, with typical development remaining robust regardless of autism status or socioeconomic factors.
Key findings
01Male autistic infants showed significantly lower canonical babbling trajectories compared to female autistic infants and typically developing infants.
02There was no significant main effect of autism diagnosis on canonical babbling rates when sex was not considered.
03Socioeconomic status did not significantly influence the development of canonical babbling in this sample.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study found no significant main effect for autism overall, only when broken down by sex. Sample size for female autistic infants was small (15 females vs. 29 males), which may affect the reliability of the sex-specific findings. The study did not include measures of later language performance, so it is unclear if these early babbling differences predict actual speech or language outcomes. Canonical babbling rates were lower than expected compared to laboratory studies, suggesting day-long home recordings may yield different results than controlled settings. Participants were recruited from a sibling study, so elevated-likelihood infants had older siblings with autism, which may have influenced parental interaction styles.
Declared interests
One author is an unpaid member of the LENA Scientific Advisory Board. LENA devices were used for data collection. No other competing interests were reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a lack of canonical babbling delay in a female autistic infant rules out communication difficulties. The study found significant delays only in male autistic infants, and overall group differences were small with high individual variability. Furthermore, this study tracked babbling rates, not actual speech or language outcomes.