Movement Coordination's Link with Common Ground During Dyadic Peer Discourse in Typically Developing and Autistic...

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Background:

• Common ground (CG) is vital for effective communication, involving shared meaning construction between interlocutors.
• Exploration of CG in children's peer interactions, particularly comparing autistic and typically developing (TD) populations, remains limited.
• Understanding CG's developmental trajectory and its relationship with motor skills is crucial for communication research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in CG efficiency between autistic and TD children.
• To examine the developmental trends of CG in peer interactions.
• To explore the link between CG and motor coordination skills in children.

Main Methods:

• 148 children (64 TD, 84 autistic; ages 6-16) participated in matched dyads.
• Children completed a Common Ground tangram-card task and joint action (JA) tasks.
• Individual motor skills were also assessed to evaluate peer-to-peer coordination.

Main Results:

• Both groups improved CG task efficiency over turns, but autistic children were less efficient than TD children.
• Enhanced motor skills and JA synchronization correlated with better CG performance in both groups.
• Motor skills and JA mediated the group differences in CG, with age moderating the JA-CG relationship.

Conclusions:

• Autistic children exhibit less efficient CG development compared to TD peers.
• Motor coordination and joint action are key factors influencing CG, particularly in younger children.
• Findings suggest potential for early interventions targeting motor and language skills to improve pragmatic abilities in autism.