Examination of the relationship between gestures and vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder at different language stages

Akçamuş, Meral Çilem Ökcün; Acarlar, Funda; Kaysili, Bahar Keçeli; Alak, Gamze

doi:10.1080/03004430.2017.1344233

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Importantly, while TD infants showed a clear tendency to produce more deictic gestures in the commenting context than in the requesting context, the ASD group did not show a difference in the gesture types produced across contexts. Similarly, Ökcün-Akçamuş et al. (2017) found that declarative deictic gestures together with conventional/pantomime gestures predicted vocabulary outcomes (i.e., number of words) in children with ASD in a 3- to 8-year-old age range 1 , while imperative deictic gestures did not.…”

Section: Are Gestures Reliable Predictors Of Language In Asd?mentioning

confidence: 86%

Gesture and Language Trajectories in Early Development: An Overview From the Autism Spectrum Disorder Perspective

2019

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The well-documented gesture-language relation in typical communicative development (TD) remains understudied in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research on early communication skills shows that gesture production is a strong predictor of language in TD, but little is known about the association between gestures and language in ASD. This review focuses on exploring this relation by addressing two topics: the reliability of gestures as predictor of language competences in ASD and the types of potential differences (quantitative, qualitative, or both) in the gesture-language trajectory in children on the autism spectrum compared to typically developing children. We find evidence that gesture production is indeed a reliable predictor of early communicative skills and that both quantitative and qualitative differences have been established in research in the development of verbal and non-verbal communication skills in ASD, with lower gesture rates at the quantitative level, and a trajectory that starts deviating from the TD trajectory only at some point after the first year of life.

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Section: Are Gestures Reliable Predictors Of Language In Asd?mentioning

confidence: 86%

Gesture and Language Trajectories in Early Development: An Overview From the Autism Spectrum Disorder Perspective

2019

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“…Özçaliskan, Adamson, and Dimitrova [2016] report that deictic gestures predicted the vocabulary of children with TD and ASD, independently of their communicative function (whether imperative or declarative ). In contrast, Ökcün‐Akçamuş, Acarlar, Keçeli Kaysili, and Alak [2017] found that within the deictic category, only declarative gestures predicted higher lexical diversity (number of different words) in children with autism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different Ways of Making a Point: A Study of Gestural Communication in Typical and Atypical Early Development

2020

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Deictic pointing is among the most impaired gestures in children with autism. Research on typical development demonstrates that contact with the referent and handshape when pointing, are associated with different communicative intentions and developmental stages. Despite their importance, the morphological features of pointing remain largely unexplored in autism. The aim of the present study was to map out pointing production in autism with a focus on handshape and contact with the referent. Participants (age range = 1–6 years old) with ASD (n = 16), at high risk for autism (n = 13) and typically developing children (n = 18) interacted with their caregivers in a gesture elicitation task. Results showed that children with ASD produced fewer pointing gestures overall and fewer index finger pointing without contact with the referent compared to the typically developing children. Lay Summary Children with autism produce less gestures than typical children, and pointing gestures appear to be more affected than other gesture types. Whether children point using their index finger or the palm, and whether they touch or not the referent is crucial for understanding communicative intentions. This is the first study to document experimentally exactly how pointing gestures differ in autism in comparison to typical development. We found important qualitative differences in the communicative patterns of children with autism and at risk for autism, that may serve to identify potential new markers for early diagnosis. Autism Res 2021, 14: 984–996. © 2020 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.

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“…However, only few studies address specifically the relationship between deictic gesture and language in autism, a clear gap in research identified in the scoping review by Manwaring and colleagues [15]. These studies have shown that only deictic gestures predicted language in ASD as well as in TD [8,55,14]. Not surprisingly, ASD children produce fewer deictic gestures than TD children, and this might account for the developmental lag.…”

Section: Pointing Hand Features and Language In Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

You may point, but do not touch: Impact of gesture-types and cognition on language in typical and atypical development

Vulchanova¹,

Acha²,

Ramos-Cabo³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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We investigated whether two types of pointing hand features (index finger and open palm pointing) and three types of relation with the referent (manipulation, contact, no contact) similarly predict language in children with and without autism, and whether cognition mediates the longitudinal relationship between pointing and language development. Sixteen children with autism, thirteen children at high risk for autism, and eighteen typically developing children participated in an interactive gesture-elicitation task and were tested on standardized cognitive and expressive language batteries in a longitudinal design. Cognition was a significant and direct predictor of language skills in all groups. However, index finger pointing was a direct predictor of language in the autism group above and beyond cognition. In addition, index finger pointing total score and percentage of no contact pointing bids were key predictors of expressive language measured one year apart, once the effect of group, expressive language and cognition at Time 1 were controlled. Findings highlight the role of cognition in communicative development, but suggest a key role of index finder use in the longitudinal relationship between deictic gestures and language atypical development above and beyond cognition.

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Examination of the relationship between gestures and vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder at different language stages

Cited by 18 publications

References 58 publications

Gesture and Language Trajectories in Early Development: An Overview From the Autism Spectrum Disorder Perspective

Gesture and Language Trajectories in Early Development: An Overview From the Autism Spectrum Disorder Perspective

Different Ways of Making a Point: A Study of Gestural Communication in Typical and Atypical Early Development

You may point, but do not touch: Impact of gesture-types and cognition on language in typical and atypical development

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