Parents' Use of Internal State Language with Toddlers at High and Low Genetic Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Susan B Campbell, Amanda S Mahoney, Celia A Brownell and 2 others
PMID 30488152WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of toddlers later diagnosed with autism used similar amounts of emotion words when reading, but tried less often to get the child to talk about feelings.
These toddlers lagged behind peers in using internal state words by 28 months.
Key findings
01Parents of toddlers later diagnosed with ASD did not differ from low-risk parents in their overall use of internal state language or elaboration during book reading.
02Parents of toddlers later diagnosed with ASD attempted to elicit internal state language from their children significantly less often at 22 and 28 months than parents of low-risk toddlers.
03Toddlers later diagnosed with ASD used significantly fewer internal state words than low-risk toddlers by 28 months, both in observed speech and parent reports.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample of children who received an autism diagnosis was small (19 at 22 months, 19 at 28 months). Groups were not matched for mental or language age, so differences in child language may reflect cognitive levels rather than autism-specific social communication patterns. The study used a structured book-reading task, which may not reflect how parents and children talk about feelings in natural home settings. Data on the total amount of parent-child conversation was not collected, only the specific internal state language.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that parents of children with autism are less emotionally expressive. They used similar amounts of internal state language overall; the difference was specifically in how often they tried to get the child to participate in the conversation about feelings.