Susan H. Landry

Joint attention and language in autism and developmental language delay

The relationship of gestural joint attention behaviors and the development of effective communication skills in autism and developmental language delay (DLD) was investigated. Autistic and DLD children matched for MA and MLU were compared on measures of gestural joint attention behavior, personal pronoun use, and spontaneous communicative behavior. DLD children responded correctly to joint attention interactions more often than autistic children, and their spontaneous gestural behavior was more communicative and developmental advanced. Correct production of “I/you” pronouns was related to number of spontaneous initiations for autistic but not for DLD children. Measures of spontaneous joint attention behaviors were in general not related to MA, CA, or MLU for either group. DLD childrens performance suggests no special impairment of joint attention skills, whereas autistic childrens performance suggests a joint attention deficit in addition to a language deficit.

The effect of social context on the functional communication skills of autistic children

This study investigated autistic childrens use of attention-directing gestures and language in three different interactive situations which varied in social context factors. These behaviors were videotaped and compared in autistic children (n=15), children with developmental language delay (n=14), matched on mental age and mean length of utterance (MLU), and MLU-matched young normal children (n=13). Results supported the hypothesis that autistic childrens attention-directing behavior would differ most from that of the other groups in spontaneous interactions. However, contrary to expectation, the autistic children did not produce more attention-directing behavior when a high degree of adult direction was provided. Overall, the autistic group used attention-directing behaviors less frequently than the other groups, and in the autistic group these behavors varied less across social context factors. Results are interpreted in terms of their implications for language intervention programs with autistic children.

The functions of immediate echolalia in autistic children: A developmental perspective

This study examined differences in the use of immediate echolalia by autistic children at different stages of language development. Eighteen autistic children, aged 4 to 12 years, were videotaped in play sessions with a parent and with an examiner. Data were collected on frequency of echolalia, percentage of language that was echolalic, functions of echolalia (Prizant & Duchan, 1981), chronological age, nonverbal mental age, and language level. Frequency of immediate echolalia varied with expressive language level but not with nonverbal mental age or chronological age. The percentage of language that was echolalic was high at early stages of language development but decreased as language skills improved. No significant relationships were found between number of functions and language level, chronologoical age, or nonverbal mental age. Although coding of functions was reliable, the validity of functional categories for echolalia was not strongly supported. Implications for autistic language development and for methodology in this area are discussed.