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Measuring and Supporting Language Function for Children with Autism: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial of a Social-Interaction-Based Therapy

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Abstract

In a report of the effectiveness of MEHRIT, a social-interaction-based intervention for autism, Casenhiser et al. (Autism 17(2):220–241, 2013) failed to find a significant advantage for language development in the treatment group using standardized language assessments. We present the results from a re-analysis of their results to illustrate the importance of measuring communicative language acts (formally called “speech acts”). Reanalysis confirmed that children in the MEHRIT group outperformed the community treatment group on measures of MLUm, number of utterances produced, and various speech act categories. The study underscores the importance of functional language measures in guiding and evaluating treatment for children with autism, and suggests that MEHRIT is effective in improving children’s use of language during parent–child interactions.

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Notes

  1. One might also suspect that treatments that focus on language content and form will show more improvement than those that focus on language function. Casenhiser et al. (2013) report some evidence contrary to this hypothesis since they found no difference on standard language measures between MEHRIT and the community treatment group (who received on average 3–4 h per week of treatment through mostly standard treatment programs). However, since the CT group’s treatment was not controlled by the experimenters, this evidence should not be considered reliable.

  2. We were unable to obtain scores for two children in each group due to children’s inability to complete the test even after multiple attempts. Children who were unable to complete the WPPSI (either due to age or developmental level), were tested using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.

  3. For a discussion of many such studies, see Tomasello (2003).

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Acknowledgments

This research was made possible by the generous support of the Harris Steel Foundation and the Harris family, which made it possible to create the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative. We are also grateful for the support we have received from the Unicorn Foundation, Cure Autism Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Templeton Foundation. We also thank the families involved in the study as well as team members Narmilee Dhayanandan, Nadia Noble, and Alicia Alison for their hard work and dedication. We thank Eunice Lee, Ashley Abergel, Riti Dass, Heba Mouniemneh, Jasmine Dzeko, Farah Vali, and Lauren Mitchell for their perseverance in coding and transcribing the mountain of raw data, and we thank John Hoffman for his outstanding assistance with research and preparation of this manuscript. Finally, we thank the editor and three anonymous JADD reviewers whose comments substantially improved the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative, York University, Toronto, Canada

    Devin M. Casenhiser, Amanda Binns, Fay McGill, Olga Morderer & Stuart G. Shanker

  2. Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 548 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Devin M. Casenhiser

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  1. Devin M. Casenhiser
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  2. Amanda Binns
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  3. Fay McGill
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  4. Olga Morderer
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  5. Stuart G. Shanker
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Correspondence to Devin M. Casenhiser.

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Casenhiser, D.M., Binns, A., McGill, F. et al. Measuring and Supporting Language Function for Children with Autism: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial of a Social-Interaction-Based Therapy. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 846–857 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2242-3

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