The role of early social motivation in explaining variability in functional language in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.
Pumpki L Su, Sally J Rogers, Annette Estes and 1 others
PMID 32921137WHAT IT FOUND
Early social motivation predicts expressive language two years later in toddlers with autism, but only through a specific chain: social motivation leads to intentional communication, which leads to receptive language, which finally leads to expressive language.
Targeting word production alone may miss the mechanism.
Key findings
01Social motivation at study entry was positively associated with expressive language two years later.
02The association between early social motivation and later expressive language was mediated serially by intentional communication and receptive language.
03Neither intentional communication nor receptive language acted as a significant sole mediator between social motivation and expressive language.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study design is longitudinal and correlational, not experimental, so it cannot prove causation. Caregiver linguistic input, a key variable in the proposed 'elicited bootstrapping' theory, was not measured. The serial mediation analysis was a post-hoc exploration. The sample size was relatively small and did not have sufficient power for more complex full longitudinal models. Participants were drawn from a treatment study, though treatment assignment did not moderate the findings.
Declared interests
The study was supported by an NIH grant. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the significant serial mediation as proof that increasing social motivation will cause language gains. This is a correlational study, and the mediation analysis was post-hoc. The findings are hypothesis-generating and require experimental confirmation before changing treatment protocols.