Early language exposure supports later language skills in infants with and without autism.
Meghan R Swanson, Kevin Donovan, Sarah Paterson and 15 others
PMID 31254329WHAT IT FOUND
Across infants, including those later diagnosed with autism, hearing more adult words and having more back-and-forth talk at 9 and 15 months was associated with better language skills at 24 months.
Key findings
01Hearing more adult words at 9 months was associated with better 24-month verbal language scores, and each 5,000-unit increase in adult words was associated with about a 4-point increase in verbal developmental quotient.
02Across all diagnostic groups, more adult words and more conversational turns at both 9 and 15 months were significantly associated with better language skills at 24 months.
03At 15 months, adult word count and conversational turns each showed a significant indirect effect from maternal education to later language skills, accounting for 60.36% and 65.70% of that association respectively.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was observational, so it shows an association between early language exposure and later language scores, not that caregiver speech caused the scores. The infants later diagnosed with autism were few, and the authors state the significant results require replication and subgroup analyses need caution. The sample came from families with an older sibling with or without autism and was not a clinically referred toddler sample, so it may not represent all children with autism. Most families had relatively high socioeconomic status and were in Western contexts, limiting generalisation to other groups. The home language measure was automated, so it may not perfectly capture all speech heard by the infant.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration. The publication types list NIH and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing adult words or conversational turns will cause better language. This was an observational association, the autism group was small, and the study did not test a parent-training intervention.