Object Engagement, Parent Labels, and Language: Dyadic Play in Toddlers at Elevated Likelihood of Autism

• In Event: Cascading Consequences of Object Play on Cognition

Abstract

Toddlers develop in a complex social environment full of opportunities to learn from parental input. Parents scaffold their toddlers’ learning during object play, and parent speech supports language development for children with neurotypical development and with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Swanson, 2020). Recent work suggests that parent speech during joint engagement (i.e., playing together with the same object) is particularly important for language learning in children with ASD (Bottema-Beutel et al., 2014). Difficulties with language are common in toddlers with an older sibling with ASD, who are at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (Ozonoff et al., 2011) and have higher rates of non-ASD language delay (Marrus et al., 2018) than toddlers with no family history of autism (typical likelihood, TL). However, little work has examined parent input during object engagement vs. joint engagement in EL toddlers.

The present study aimed to answer three questions: Do EL toddlers with ASD and non-ASD language delays differ from their TL peers in the proportions of time spent in object engagement vs. joint engagement? How does time in each engagement state relate to the rate of parent object labels? Does parent labeling within specific engagement states predict later language skills?

Participants included TL (n=12) and EL (n=43) toddlers. Parent-toddler dyads were videotaped at home during toy play at 12 and 18 months. Episodes of coordinated and supported joint engagement (i.e., joint engagement with and without eye contact) and object engagement (i.e., toddler engaging solely with objects) were identified. We calculated the rates of parent utterances labeling the child’s focus across the observation and within engagement states. Language skill was measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory at 24 and 36 months. EL infants were evaluated at 36 months and classified into three groups: EL-ASD (n=12), language delay without ASD (EL-LD, n=17), and no diagnosis (EL-ND, n=14).

EL toddlers spent more time in object engagement than TL peers at 12 months of age (H(3) = 9.25, p = 0.026), though this difference was not significant by 18 months. The proportion of time spent in object engagement was negatively related to overall rate of parent labels at 12 months (r = -0.374, p < 0.01) but not 18 months. However, time spent in supported joint engagement was positively related to the overall rate of parent labels at 12 (r =.569, p < 0.001) and 18 months (r =.288, p = 0.033; Figure 1). Additionally, while parent labels in object engagement and coordinated joint engagement (but not supported joint engagement) at 18 months positively predicted language skills for TL toddlers (ps < 0.01), labels were negatively related to language for EL-ASD toddlers across engagement states (ps < 0.05, see Figure 2).

Findings highlight the importance of considering the social context of object play and suggest that engagement plays a role in the input toddlers receive as well as later language outcomes. By examining everyday interactions, we can begin to understand how parents and toddlers both shape their communicative environment.

Authors

• Emily Roemer Britsch, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Jana M Iverson, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author