Abstract
We examined direct and indirect paths involving receptive vocabulary and diversity of key consonants used in communication (DKCC) to improve understanding of why previously identified value-added predictors are associated with later expressive vocabulary for initially preverbal children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 87). Intentional communication, DKCC, and parent linguistic responses accounted for unique variance in later expressive vocabulary when controlling for mid-point receptive vocabulary, but responding to joint attention did not. We did not confirm any indirect paths through mid-point receptive vocabulary. DKCC mediated the association between intentional communication and expressive vocabulary. Further research is needed to replicate the findings, test potentially causal relations, and provide a specific sequence of intervention targets for preverbal children with ASD.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC006893) and supported by a US Department of Education Preparation of Leadership Personnel grant (H325D140087), the EKS of NIH (U54HD083211) and the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (P30HD03110).
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JM conceived of the study, participated in the design and interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript; PY conceived of the study, participated in the design, participated in the collection and interpretation of the data, and helped draft the manuscript; LRW participated in the collection and interpretation of the data and helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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McDaniel, J., Yoder, P. & Watson, L.R. A Path Model of Expressive Vocabulary Skills in Initially Preverbal Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 947–960 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-3016-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-3016-x