Longitudinal associations across vocabulary modalities in children with autism and typical development.

We examined differences between children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children over an 8-month period in: (a) longitudinal associations between expressive and receptive vocabulary and (b) the extent to which caregiver utterances provided within an "optimal" engagement state mediated the pathway from early expressive to later receptive vocabulary. In total, 59 children (28-53 months at Time 1) comprised the autism spectrum disorder group and 46 children (8-24 months at Time 1) comprised the typically developing group. Groups were matched on initial vocabulary sizes.

Sequential Associations Between Caregiver Talk and Child Play in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development.

This study examined sequential associations between child play and caregiver talk in 98 caregiver-child dyads (M  = 14 months). Fifty dyads included a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Analyses revealed sequential associations between child play and caregiver follow-in (FI) utterances (utterances related to the child's attentional focus) were stronger in the ASD as compared to the typically developing (TD) group.

Repetition, response mobilization, and face: Analysis of group interactions with a 19-year-old with Asperger syndrome.

Unlabelled: This Conversation Analytic study examined the talk of an adolescent with Asperger syndrome (under previously used diagnostic criteria), Nathan, as he interacts with peers in a small group setting. We focused on Nathan's repetition aimed at pursuing response, and rely on analytical frameworks including response mobilization, face-work, and agreement preference. We found that while Nathan's repetitions resembled 'topic perseveration' previously described in the literature, they showed evidence of interactional awareness as they were employed when peers offered little or no response to his original utterance.