Conversational Language Is a Predictor of Vocational Independence and Friendships in Adults with ASD.
Laura Friedman, Audra Sterling, Leann Smith DaWalt and 1 others
PMID 31338717WHAT IT FOUND
More different words in adult conversations predicted vocational independence and friendships five years later, after accounting for IQ and childhood language.
Topic maintenance, measured by elaborate replies, predicted friendships but not vocational independence.
Key findings
01Number of different words predicted vocational independence five years later, after controlling for IQ and childhood language.
02Number of different words predicted status of friendships five years later, after controlling for IQ and childhood language.
03Proportion of elaborate utterances predicted status of friendships, but not vocational independence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only adults who were verbal and able to complete an interview were included, so the results do not cover the full autism spectrum. The number of different words was highly related to total utterances and mean length of utterance, so it may partly reflect talkativeness or grammatical complexity rather than vocabulary alone. Conversation length was not controlled, and the language sample came from one interview context. Childhood language was measured with a single ADI-R item, which may not capture childhood language ability comprehensively. Vocational independence was measured at one time point, not employment stability over time. The study cannot show direction. Language may support vocational independence and friendships, or work and friendships may support language. Only one aspect of structural language and one aspect of social language were examined. Vocational and friendship information came from parents, and diagnosis was confirmed using parent-reported ADI-R information.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest were declared. No funder is reported in the paper.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that speech-language therapy will improve vocational independence or friendships. This was a longitudinal study of associations, not a test of an intervention, and it did not show that language caused later outcomes.