Patterns of Gesture Use in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of spontaneous gesture use in a sample of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Thirty-five adolescents with ASD ages 11 to 16 years participated (mean age = 13.51 years; 29 boys, 6 girls). Participants' spontaneous speech and gestures produced during a narrative task were later coded from videotape. Parents were also asked to complete questionnaires to quantify adolescents' general communication ability and autism severity.

No significant subgroup differences were apparent between adolescents who did not gesture versus those who produced at least 1 gesture in general communication ability and autism severity. Subanalyses including only adolescents who produced gesture indicated a statistically significant negative association between gesture rate and general communication ability, specifically speech and syntax subscale scores. Adolescents who gestured produced higher proportions of iconic gestures and used gesture mostly to add information to speech.

The findings relate spontaneous gesture use to underlying strengths and weaknesses in adolescents' speech and syntactical language development. More research examining cospeech gesture in fluent speakers with ASD is needed.