Language acquisition can be truly atypical in autism: Beyond joint attention

Kissine, Mikhail; Saint-Denis, Ariane; Mottron, Laurent

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105384

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 83 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…What our results suggest, however, is that other factors than atypical social interactions may contribute to the social behaviors in autistic children. More broadly, autistic children might develop taking other routes, as recent findings suggest: Some autistic children have been found to acquire language via nonsocially based channels, such as the Internet or television (Kissine et al, 2023). These results prompt a reconsideration of the universality of theories like the social cognitive developmental theory, suggesting that neuroatypicalities, including autism, may call for more specific theoretical frameworks, rather than being solely perceived as delays or deficits in comparison to neurotypical development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similar social attention, physiological arousal, and familiarity effect in autistic and neurotypical children: A real-life recreational eye-tracking paradigm.

Clin,

Miller,

Kissine

2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social attention is reported to be crucial for the development of social skills, and, according to the social cognitive developmental theory, is fostered by social interactions. Autism is of central importance to the study of social attention, as autism is characterized by atypical social interactions and low social attention, both linked according to the social motivation theory to diminished social interest. Much evidence for positing low social interest in autism comes from eye-tracking studies, which, however, lack ecological validity. Our study documents social attention and physiological arousal, within close to real-life settings, in autistic children, as well as in their neurotypical peers, matched on gender and mental or chronological age. To explore the potential influence of partner familiarity or of the conversational topic, children gaze and electrodermal activity were recorded while they engaged in watercolor activities with, first a familiar and, next, an unfamiliar adult experimenter, who both introduced various topics. Autistic and neurotypical children exhibited comparable attention to their partners' eyes. Notably, across all groups, heightened visual attention was directed to familiar rather than unfamiliar partners. Moreover, parallel arousal patterns emerged, with all children displaying increased skin conductance responses during more engaging topics and when looking at their interactional partner's eyes. These findings underscore the task-and contextdependent nature of social attention and highlight the role of familiarity in an ecologically valid context. The absence of group differences challenges the universality of the social cognitive developmental theory and questions the scope of the social motivation theory of autism.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similar social attention, physiological arousal, and familiarity effect in autistic and neurotypical children: A real-life recreational eye-tracking paradigm.

Clin,

Miller,

Kissine

2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is in line with previous work indicating that joint attention abilities are important for emerging language, and delays or absence of these behaviors is related to lower language abilities and language delays ( Charman et al, 2003 ; Murray et al, 2008 ). A recent literature review of joint attention skills in autism however showed that while joint attention skills are indeed important for language acquisition in autism, there are autistic children with very few joint attention behaviors that still successfully develop advanced language abilities ( Kissine et al, 2023 ). This result further underscores the notion that no one factor determines language development in autism but an interplay between joint attention and other factors appears to be in place.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors associated with receptive and expressive language in autistic children and siblings: A systematic review

Muès,

Schaubroeck,

Demurie

et al. 2024

Autism & Developmental Language Impairments

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background & aims Language abilities of autistic children and children at elevated likelihood for autism (EL-siblings) are highly heterogeneous, and many of them develop language deficits. It is as of yet unclear why language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings vary, although an interaction of multiple influential factors is likely at play. In this review, we describe research articles that identify one or multiple of such factors associated with the receptive or expressive language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings since the introduction of the DSM-5. Our aim was to identify and summarize factors that are linked to language development in autistic children and siblings in the recent literature to ultimately gain insight into the heterogeneity of language abilities in these children. Methods The search strategy of this review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The following databases were consulted: Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus. Inclusion criteria for studies were the presence of a sample of autistic children no older than 7 years old who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder per the criteria of the DSM-5. Intervention studies and studies without an explicitly reported language measure were excluded. Risk of bias assessment was completed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scales. Ultimately, 55 articles were included in this review. Main contribution Fifty-six factors were identified to be related to receptive or expressive language abilities of autistic children and EL-siblings. They were grouped into three main categories: biological factors; psychosocial and environmental factors; and age-related and developmental factors, each with different subcategories. Although many of the identified variables were only examined in one article, some well-researched associated factors were reported across multiple studies and were present in both autistic children and EL-siblings, in particular joint attention, nonverbal cognitive abilities and frontal EEG power. Better insight in these factors associated with language abilities in autistic children and siblings at elevated likelihood can inform future intervention strategies to reduce language deficits and its corresponding negative consequences in these children. Conclusions Our results confirm that multiple different factors likely underlie language deficits in autism. Important aspects that should be considered are, among others, social factors such as joint attention, child characteristics such as nonverbal cognition, and neurocognitive factors.

show abstract

“…Developmental approaches also often focus on supporting non-verbal socio-cognitive skills, particularly joint attention, with the assumption that this trajectory is optimal for language development in all children, including gestalt language learners. This is despite evidence that some autistic children learn language in a range of inherently atypical ways, including without neurotypical joint attentional skills (Kissine et al, 2023;Mottron & Gagnon, 2024). Other approaches attempt to teach chunks of language through repetition and rote learning (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Embracing gestalt language development as a fundamental neurodiversity-affirmative practice

Haydock,

Harrison,

Baldwin

et al. 2024

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Language acquisition can be truly atypical in autism: Beyond joint attention

Cited by 16 publications

References 83 publications

Similar social attention, physiological arousal, and familiarity effect in autistic and neurotypical children: A real-life recreational eye-tracking paradigm.

Similar social attention, physiological arousal, and familiarity effect in autistic and neurotypical children: A real-life recreational eye-tracking paradigm.

Factors associated with receptive and expressive language in autistic children and siblings: A systematic review

Embracing gestalt language development as a fundamental neurodiversity-affirmative practice

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About