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Joint Engagement and Socially Motivated Language in Young Autistic Children
Erin E Kosloski1,2, Pamela Rosenthal Rollins3,4
1Department of Speech, Language and Hearing, University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W Campbell Road, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA. erin.kosloski@utdallas.edu.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
|November 26, 2025
Summary
Young autistic children use more words per minute in less social interactions. The Pathways intervention increased time in more social engagement, indicating a need to distinguish social language from expressive language outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Language Acquisition
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
Background:
- Understanding social motivation in young autistic children is crucial for targeted interventions.
- Previous research highlights variations in engagement states and language use in autism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the social motivation (SM) of language and engagement states in young autistic children.
- To examine the impact of the Pathways intervention on children's engagement patterns and language use.
Main Methods:
- Secondary analysis of video recordings of naturalistic parent-child interactions with 47 young autistic children.
- Coding of engagement states and child utterances for social motivation, attention, and communicative intent.
- Statistical analysis including descriptive statistics, correlations, and hierarchical regression.
Main Results:
- Children spent more time and produced more words per minute (WPM) in less social engagement states.
- Lower SM utterances correlated with time in Object Engagement (less social), with services-as-usual (SAU) showing more time than Pathways.
- Higher SM utterances correlated with time in Coordinated Joint Engagement (more social), with Pathways showing more time than SAU.
Conclusions:
- Findings differentiate between expressive language (WPM) and social language (SM utterances) in autistic children.
- The study underscores the importance of considering social motivation as a distinct outcome in autism research and intervention.
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