Differences in teachers verbal responsiveness to groups of children with ASD who vary in cognitive and language...

This study aimed to examine whether verbal responsiveness in special education teachers varied among subgroups of children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 112) who differed in cognitive and language abilities.

Participants were divided into clusters using cluster analysis based on standardised cognitive and language tests using k-mean clustering. For each child, a 15-min video of free play in school setting was collected. Three types of responsive utterances were coded: follow-in directives for behaviour, follow-in directives for language and follow-in comments.

Results showed that the three groups did not differ in overall verbal responsiveness after controlling for engagement, classroom type, age and gender. However, groups differ in follow-in directives for language, but not in follow-in directives for behaviours or follow-in comments. Compared with children with autism spectrum disorder who had higher cognitive and language ability, children with more severe impairments received fewer follow-in directives for language. Moreover, children with more cognitive and language impairments produced fewer amount of vocal/verbal acts, which results in receiving fewer verbal responses from their teachers. Additionally, teachers from the three groups did not differ in their responses to the child's verbal/vocal acts when the number of the child's verbal/vocal acts were controlled for.

Findings suggest child characteristics are related to the type of teachers' verbal responses in preschools. This difference in follow-in directives for questions may be related to language or other outcomes that warrant further investigations.