Multimodal Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Different Linguistic Development

Murillo, Eva; Camacho, Lourdes; Montero, Ignacio

doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04637-7

Original Paper
Published: 03 August 2020

Multimodal Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Different Linguistic Development

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 51, pages 1528–1539 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

This study focuses on the multimodal communication of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to typically developing (TD) children. Eleven children with ASD (aged from 28 to 79 months) and 11 TD children (from 12 to 30 months) were matched by their productive vocabulary. We observed their communicative production in a semi-structured play situation. Results showed no differences in the combinations of gestural and vocal elements between children with ASD and TD. By contrast, regarding the production of the three-element multimodal combinations, we found a different pattern between ASD and TD children depending on their lexical development. These results provide clues to understand some controversial findings regarding multimodal production of people with ASD described in the literature.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the families that have participated in this study for their invaluable cooperation, and Andrea Solis and Miguel Lázaro for their help in preparing this manuscript. This research has been funded by FEDER, Ministerio de Innovación y Universidades, Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, Project PGC-2018-095275-A-100.

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Affiliations

Departamento de Psicología Básica, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain
Eva Murillo
Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Procesos Cognitivos y Logopedia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Lourdes Camacho
Departamento de Psicología Social y Metodología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Ignacio Montero

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Eva Murillo
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Lourdes Camacho
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Ignacio Montero
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Contributions

EM designed the study. EM and LC collected the data. IM analysed the data. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Eva Murillo.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University Research Ethics Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from parents of all individual participants included in the study.

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Murillo, E., Camacho, L. & Montero, I. Multimodal Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Different Linguistic Development. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1528–1539 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04637-7

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Published: 03 August 2020
Issue Date: May 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04637-7

Keywords

Multimodal communication
Autism spectrum disorders
Gestures
Lexical development