Abstract
We investigated gestures that parents used with 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old infants at high or low risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD; high-risk diagnosed with ASD: n = 21; high-risk classified as no ASD: n = 34; low-risk classified as no ASD: n = 34). We also examined infant responses to parent gestures and assessed the extent to which parent gesture relates to vocabulary development. Parents of three groups gestured in similar frequencies and proportions. Infants, in turn, responded similarly to parent gestures regardless of the infant’s ASD risk and later diagnosis. Finally, parents who gestured more at 12 months had children with better vocabulary at 36 months than parents who gestured less. These findings highlight the importance of examining parent gestures when predicting language development.
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Notes
One previous paper examined a sub-sample (37%) of the participants included in the present study to examine gesture use in maternal gesture use at a single time point (Talbott et al. 2015). By including a larger sample size (n = 89) and multiple time points at 12, 18, and 24 months, the present study contributes to a more complete picture of parent gestural communication and its contribution to vocabulary development in the infant sibling context.
Given that previous research suggests a significant relation between parent education and gesture use (e.g., Rowe and Goldin-Meadow 2009) and that we found the significant differences in parent education across groups in our sample, we tested whether the finding held with the education controlled. Our finding held, demonstrating that parent gesture did not differ by group, over and above the control for parent education.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the participating families as well as the Infant Sibling Project team members involved in this research. We would also like to thank Phoebe Stoye for her assistance with transcription and Lauren Castelbaum for her helpful comments on the manuscript.
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This study was funded by the Grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01-DC010290 to HTF and CAN; R21-DC08637 to HTF), Autism Speaks (1323 to HTF), and Simons Foundation (137186 to CAN). The funding bodies did not have any role in the design, collection, analyses, and interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript.
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BC and PS performed data coding and analyses and drafted the manuscript. MLR, HTF, and CAN critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Choi, B., Shah, P., Rowe, M.L. et al. A Longitudinal Study of Parent Gestures, Infant Responsiveness, and Vocabulary Development in Infants at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 3946–3958 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04855-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04855-z