A Systematic Literature Review of Autism Research on Caregiver Talk

Abstract

Describing how caregivers' talk to their autistic children, and how their talk may influence social and language outcomes, has important implications for developmental theory and intervention research. In this systematic literature review, we examine 294 caregiver talk variables extracted from 65 studies, provide a narrative overview of research findings, and link measurement approaches to various theories of language development. The majority of variables included only talk directed to children (90%), and specified the speech act being performed (57%). More than one‐third of variables measured talk that was responsive to children's attention, activities, or communication (38%), and slightly less than a third measured variables that elicited children's communication or engagement. Semantic aspects of talk were specified in 41% of variables, structural features were measured in 20% of variables, and suprasegmental features were measured in only 1% of variables. Talk quantity (without reference to other aspects of talk) was measured in 8% of variables. We found strong support that talk related to children's attention is implicated in autistic children's language development, but this construct has been measured inconsistently in terms of semantic, structural, and functional features. There is also evidence for bi‐directional relationships between caregiver's talk and autistic children's development on a variety of semantic and structural variables. Lay Summary In our review, we found many differences in how researchers measured caregiver's talk, but also some promising leads. Researchers should continue examining caregiver talk related to children's focus of attention to clarify how this type of language contributes to autistic children's development. We also found interesting research on how children influence caregiver's talk, and encourage researchers to continue to study how this occurs.

The influence of child-based factors and parental inputs on expressive language abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder

“…While abundant research has focused on examining child-based predictors, there have been relatively few studies that have investigated whether parental inputs (e.g. structural language, pragmatic function, responsiveness) influence the language abilities of autistic children (Bang & Nadig, 2015; Choi et al, 2020; Fusaroli et al, 2019; Venker et al, 2015; see reviews in Bottema-Beutel & Kim, 2021). Those that have been undertaken have reported inconclusive findings.…”

Sequence organization of autistic children’s play with caregivers: Rethinking follow-in directives

“…However, proposal episodes were almost always bracketed by children’s solitary play at the beginning of the sequence, and by some move made by the child that was taken as a response by the caregiver at the end of the sequence. Proposal sequences that proceed with a predictable patterning of these components may scaffold autistic children’s play, by providing conventionalized, repeated “slots” for children’s participation (Bottema-Beutel and Kim, 2021; Bruner, 1982; Sterponi & Fasulo, 2010).…”

Electronic Toys Decrease the Quantity and Lexical Diversity of Spoken Language Produced by Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Age-Matched Children With Typical Development

“…Within these interventions, parents and caregivers are commonly taught to create play interactions that limit distractions and prioritize social communicative exchanges. In line with social interactionist and transactional theories of language development, the rationale is that play provides a developmentally appropriate social context for language learning that maximizes children's engagement and motivation and increases the likelihood that new skills will generalize to everyday settings (Sameroff and Fiese, 2000;Camarata and Yoder, 2002;Schreibman et al, 2015;Bruinsma et al, 2020;Bottema-Beutel and Kim, 2021).…”