Reciprocal Associations Between Language Ability and Social Functioning Development in Pre-verbal Autistic Children

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Longitudinal studies indicate language and social development are interconnected in young children.
• Research on joint development of language and social functioning in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited.
• Early language abilities in autistic children predict long-term social and adaptive functioning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reciprocal associations between language ability and social functioning in pre-verbal toddlers with ASD.
• To examine these inter-relations over a 2-year period across three distinct time points.
• To inform targeted interventions for early development in children with ASD.

Main Methods:

• A sample of 90 pre-verbal toddlers diagnosed with ASD was studied longitudinally.
• Cross-lagged panel analyses were employed using MPlus software.
• Data were collected across three time points over a 2-year duration.

Main Results:

• Significant synchronous correlations were found within each time point.
• Autoregressive paths demonstrated stability within each domain over time.
• Reciprocal influences between language ability and social functioning were significant across all cross-lagged paths.

Conclusions:

• Language ability and social functioning exert concurrent and cascading influences on each other in very young autistic children.
• Simultaneous intervention targeting both language and social development may enhance treatment efficacy.
• Early intervention is crucial for improving long-term adjustment in children with ASD.