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Value Added by Assessing Nonspoken Vocabulary in Minimally Speaking Autistic Children
Angela MacDonald-Prégent1,2, Lauren McGuinness3, Aparna Nadig1,2
1School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
|January 24, 2025
Summary
Including nonspoken communication in assessments significantly boosted expressive vocabulary for minimally speaking autistic children. This approach provides a more accurate measure of language skills in autistic children using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
Background:
- Minimally speaking autistic children often utilize augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) alongside or instead of spoken language.
- Traditional language assessment tools may not capture the full communicative abilities of these children.
- A need exists for adapted assessment tools to accurately measure expressive vocabulary in autistic children with diverse communication methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To modify the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) to include nonspoken communication.
- To explore the impact of incorporating both spoken and nonspoken expressive vocabulary on vocabulary size and composition.
- To develop an AAC-modified CDI (Words and Gestures) for assessing minimally speaking autistic children.
Main Methods:
- Recruited an initial sample of 16 autistic children (ages 3-9) with minimal spoken language.
- Caregivers completed the AAC-modified CDI: Words and Gestures after the children participated in an AAC intervention.
- Excluded one outlier, resulting in a final sample of 15 participants for analysis.
Main Results:
- Including both spoken and nonspoken communication significantly increased reported expressive vocabulary by an average of 14 words (z = -2.61, p = .009, r = .75).
- Verbs constituted 13.3% of the total expressive vocabulary when all communication modalities were considered.
- Nouns comprised the majority (51.5%) of the expressive vocabulary.
Conclusions:
- Assessing expressive vocabulary by including both spoken and nonspoken modalities is valuable for minimally speaking autistic children.
- The study's findings suggest that a broader definition of minimally speaking autistic children's vocabulary aligns with typically developing children.
- The AAC-modified CDI: Words and Gestures provides a more comprehensive assessment of language skills in this population.
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