Poster #144 - Parental Responsiveness and Language Skills in Infants at High and Low Risk for Autism

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

The important role of parental verbal responsiveness in children’s language learning has been well documented in typical and atypical development (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2001; McDuffie & Yoder, 2010). Another line of literature has promoted parental responsiveness as a target of early interventions for children with autism (Shire, Gulsrud, & Kasari, 2017). However, it remains less clear which types of parental responses best support language learning in these children, many of whom have communicative and language difficulties (Tager-Flusberg, 2016). In the current study, we examined relations between parental responsiveness and language skills in infants at high and low risk for autism.

Eighty-nine parent-infant dyads were videotaped in the lab during a 10-minute free play interaction at 12, 18, and 24 months of age. For preliminary data analysis, the videotapes were coded for 50 children (divided into groups). Gestures were coded following Özçalışkan and Goldin-Meadow (2009). Parental responses were coded as contingent if a verbal or nonverbal parental behavior occurred within two utterances after the gesture and followed the infant’s attentional focus. Contingent responses were further classified into one of six categories (Table 1): affirmations, directives, statements, questions, prohibitions, and conversational fillers. Language skills were measured using Receptive and Expressive Language subscales of Mullen Scales of Early Learning (Mullen, 1995) at 24 months. Autism outcomes were determined using Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (Lord et al., 2000) and best clinical judgment at 18-36 months. Based on their risk and autism outcomes, infants were classified into three groups: high-risk infants diagnosed with autism (HRA+), high-risk infants not diagnosed with autism (HRA-), and low-risk comparison infants not diagnosed (LRC).

We found that infants in the three groups did not differ in gesture production between 12 and 24 months. Also, there was no group difference in overall proportion of infant gestures that parents responded contingently to at 12 and 24 months. However, there was a significant group difference in overall responsiveness at 18 months, χ2(2, N = 50) = 6.41, p = .04. Follow-up analyses revealed that HRA+ mothers responded to a significantly higher proportion (96%) of infants’ gestures than HRA- and LRC mothers (89% for both groups), z = 2.32, p = .02. There was no group difference in distribution of response types at three ages. Finally, regression analyses showed that contingent verbal responses at 18 months significantly predicted children’s receptive and expressive language skills at 24 months, even after controlling for infants’ risk and gestures (t = 2.22, p = .03; t = 2.21 p = .03, respectively). Specifically, parents’ statements uniquely predicted children’s receptive (t = .2.02, p = .049) and expressive language (t = 2.32, p = .03). Parent’s questions also predicted later receptive language (t = 2.55, p = .01).

Overall, these results suggest that parental verbal responses, especially those that are semantically relevant to infants’ attentional focus (e.g., statements), may promote language learning in infants at high and low risk for autism. Implications for early intervention practices for high-risk infants will be discussed.

Authors

• April (Boin) Choi, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Meredith Rowe, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charles A. Nelson, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helen Tager-Flusberg, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author