Input and language development in children with autism

The social deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been implicated in the language delays and deficits of children with ASD. Consequently, the extent to which children with ASD utilize their language-related interactions and input in the same ways as typically developing children is only just beginning to be investigated. The current article summarizes the role of input for typically developing children learning language, and then reviews in some detail recent studies demonstrating influential effects of maternal responsivity (e.g., following in on children's focus of attention) and aspects of maternal speech (e.g., word frequency, word diversity, structural complexity) on the language production and comprehension of young children with ASD. Maternal responsivity appears to play a particularly influential role with children who are minimally verbal whereas the content and structure of maternal speech facilitate language in children who are already verbal.