Characterizing the early vocabulary profiles of preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder.
Eileen Haebig, Eva Jiménez, Christopher R Cox and 1 others
PMID 33246365WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism producing 1-10 words used a higher proportion of verbs than typically developing toddlers with the same vocabulary size.
They used fewer animal, people, and sound-effect words, and more food and drink words. Both groups still showed a noun bias.
Key findings
01Children with ASD produced a significantly higher proportion of verbs than typically developing toddlers matched for vocabulary size.
02Children with ASD produced smaller proportions of animal, people, and sound-effect words, but a higher proportion of food and drink words, compared to typically developing toddlers.
03Typically developing toddlers were significantly more likely to produce the words 'mommy' and 'daddy' than children with ASD.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The children with ASD were significantly older than the typically developing toddlers, which may explain some semantic differences (e.g., more exposure to solid foods). The study relied solely on parent-report CDI data, which may not capture the full context or function of how words are used. The typically developing comparison group was drawn from a public database and screened only for language delays, not for other developmental conditions. Only a small fraction of children in either group produced verbs, making the analysis of verb social ratings less robust.
Declared interests
The study was supported by non-U.S. government funding. No specific commercial conflicts of interest were declared in the text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the higher proportion of verbs in children with ASD as evidence that they have a relative strength in verb learning. The absolute number of words produced is still very low (1-10 words), and the difference is relative to a comparison group of much younger toddlers.