Receptive-Expressive Language Phenotypes in Infants and Toddlers With Autism Features.

The analysis was secondary and small, with 80 children, and the authors noted it may have been underpowered for subtle group differences or growth effects. Many children were younger than 18 months and did not have a confirmed autism diagnosis, so results apply to infants and toddlers with autism signs, not all diagnosed autistic children. Follow-up data were incomplete: 61 of 80 children were assessed at about 2 months and 42 of 80 at about 12 months, mostly because of attrition. The growth analysis combined receptive advantage and balanced groups, so it cannot distinguish those two profiles in predicting language growth. The study did not test intervention effects, and assignment to Standard Baby or Baby JASPER classroom did not alter the language profile growth findings. The authors could not control for nonverbal cognitive functioning or household socioeconomic status in the growth models because of sample size. The receptive-expressive ratio describes the gap between skills, not how delayed a child is overall. A child can have a typical profile and still have severe language delay.

The work was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P50HD05784) and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC020752). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not use an expressive advantage profile as a confirmed diagnostic marker or as evidence that a treatment works. The children had autism symptoms but many were not diagnosed, the sample was small, and the expressive growth finding was described as preliminary.