The stability of joint engagement states in infant siblings of children with and without ASD: Implications for measurement practices.
Kristen Bottema-Beutel, So Yoon Kim, Shannon Crowley and 4 others
PMID 30618181WHAT IT FOUND
Measuring joint engagement depends on group and state.
In siblings of children with ASD, more reciprocal play needed 4 sessions; less needed 1. In other siblings, more needed 2 sessions and less needed 7 sessions and 2 coders.
Key findings
01Stability varied by group and state: higher-order supported joint engagement was less stable than lower-order supported joint engagement in the ASD-sibling group, lower-order was less stable than higher-order in the non-ASD-sibling group, and higher-order was less stable in the ASD-sibling group than in the non-ASD-sibling group.
02For infants with an older sibling with ASD, reaching the 0.80 stability threshold required 4 sessions and 1 coder for higher-order supported joint engagement, and 1 session and 1 coder for lower-order supported joint engagement.
03For infants without an older sibling with ASD, reaching the 0.80 stability threshold required 2 sessions and 1 coder for higher-order supported joint engagement, and 7 sessions and 2 coders for lower-order supported joint engagement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was very small, with 10 children in each group, so the stability estimates may be imprecise. The study was done with infants aged 7 to 17 months in a semi-structured play room, so it is unclear how these requirements apply to older children or to classroom, playground, or more scripted settings. The researchers directly observed only 2 sessions and 2 coders, then projected requirements for other numbers of sessions and coders. The coders were doctoral students without experience with very young children. The authors did not test their explanation that caregiver inconsistency made lower-order engagement unstable in the non-ASD-sibling group. This is a measurement study, not an intervention trial, so it cannot show whether any treatment improves language or engagement.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these session and coder counts as instructions for therapy or as proof that more reciprocal play causes better language. They are measurement estimates from 20 infants in a semi-structured play study, and the paper does not report an intervention effect.