Early Lateralization of Gestures in Autism: Right-Handed Points Predict Expressive Language.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Speech and Language Pathology

Background:

• Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit differences in gestural communication and speech development compared to typically developing (TD) children.
• Deictic gestures, such as pointing, are crucial for early communication and language acquisition.
• Understanding handedness in gestures may offer insights into developmental trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether children with ASD, similar to TD children, display a right-hand preference in gesturing.
• To determine if right-handed gestures predict vocabulary size in children with ASD and TD children.
• To explore the potential of gesture handedness as an indicator of language development in both autistic and typical development.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of handedness in gesturing during mother-child play in two groups: children with ASD (n=23, mean age=30 months) and TD children (n=23, mean age=18 months).
• Assessment of right-hand preference in deictic gestures.
• Correlation of right-handed gesture frequency with expressive vocabulary size one year later.

Main Results:

• Typically developing children demonstrated a significant right-hand preference for gestures, which was not observed in children with ASD.
• Despite the lack of group-level preference in ASD, the amount of right-handed deictic gestures positively predicted expressive vocabulary size one year later in both ASD and TD children.
• This suggests a link between right-handed gesturing and language development irrespective of autism diagnosis.

Conclusions:

• Handedness in deictic gesturing, specifically the preference and frequency of right-handed pointing, may serve as a valuable indicator for language development.
• This finding holds relevance for both children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children.
• Further research into gesture-based markers could enhance early identification and intervention strategies for communication delays.