Research: Predicting Lexical Density Growth Rate in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Authored by Yoder, PJ in American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Volume 15, Issue 4, p. 378-388, (2006).

Article summary (posted Dec 14, 2006):

Young children with autism may be helped by therapy that teaches them to communicate often and play with a variety of objects in a variety of ways.

This study was designed to see why some nonverbal children with autism (aged 21 to 54 months) learn language quickly and others do not. The author measured language growth by the number of words that the child could say (lexical density). He found that the two most important ways of predicting whether or not a child will learn to speak are: intention to communicate and playing with a variety of different objects. He encourages therapists to talk to the child and describe to the child what he is doing while he is playing (descriptive talking). This type of therapy may help children learn words specific to their world.

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You can access the original abstract and the complete paper is sometimes available for free via Google Scholar (look for entries that say "PDF" or "HTML" on the right side of the page).
autism, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), communication, descriptive sentence, language, nonverbal communication, play, speech therapy, therapist, therapy
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