Abstract
This study examined associations between three parent–child engagement states and social communication, expressive language, and receptive language at 8 month follow-up, in 63 preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder. We extend the literature on supported joint engagement by dividing this state into higher order (HSJE) and lower order types, with HSJE involving greater reciprocity in toy play. We also examined parents’ follow-in utterances that co-occurred with each state. We found that only HSJE predicts later social communication and expressive language, while object engagement predicts receptive language. HSJE combined with follow-in utterances (HSJE+FI) predicts all three outcomes when controlling for HSJE+FI in other engagement states. When controlling for total HSJE, HSJE+FI is predictive of receptive language.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In Bakeman and Adamson’s original 1984 manuscript on this topic, supported joint engagement was referred to as ‘passive’ joint engagement. However, in subsequent work Adamson et al. (2004) clarify that “…it is important to emphasize that during periods of supported joint engagement, a child is neither passive (as we may have unfortunately implied in Bakeman and Adamson 1984, when we used the label passive joint engagement) nor unaware of the adult’s actions. Even though the child is not explicitly acknowledging the partner, the child is engaged in a shared activity that he or she is constructing with the partner” (p. 1183). It is this clarified definition of supported joint engagement that we use in the current study.
We conducted an additional series of analyses which controlled for initial levels of expressive language, and did indeed find that many of the associations we report in this manuscript were not significant. However, for research question 1, object engagement remains a significant predictor of receptive language. For research question 2, HSJE+FI remains a significant predictor of social communication and of receptive language. For research question 3, object engagement and HSJE+FI remain significant predictors of receptive language.
References
Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., & Deckner, D. F. (2004). The development of symbol-infused joint engagement. Child Development, 75, 1171–1187.
Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Deckner, D. F., & Romski, M. (2009). Joint engagement and the emergence of language in children with autism and Down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 84–96.
Adamson, L. B., McArthur, D., Markov, Y., Dunbar, B., & Bakeman, R. (2001). Autism and joint attention: Young children’s responses to maternal bids. Applied Developmental Pscyhology, 22, 439–451.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Revision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Bakeman, R., & Adamson, L. B. (1984). Coordinating attention to people and objects in mother-infant and peer-infant interactions. Child Development, 55, 1278–1289.
Billstedt, E., Gillberg, I. C., & Gillberg, C. (2007). Autism in adults: Symptom patterns and early childhood predictors. Use of the DISCO in a community sample followed from childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 1102–1110.
Bloom, L., & Tinker, E. (2001). The intentionality model and language acquisition: Engagement, effort, and the essential tension in development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 66, vii-91.
Bruner, J. (1983). Child’s talk: Learning to use language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carpenter, M., Nagell, K., & Tomasello, M. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 63 (Serial No. 255).
Charman, T. (2003). Why is joint attention a pivotal skill in autism? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 358, 315–324.
Dawson, G., Toth, K., Abbott, R., Osterling, J., Munson, J., & Estes, A. (2004). Early social attention impairments in autism: Social orienting, joint attention, and attention to distress. Developmental Psychology, 40, 271–283.
Fenson, L., Dale, Pl., Reznick, J., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J., et al. (1993). The MacArthur communicative development inventories: User’s guide and technical manual. San Diego, CA: Singular.
Gillespie-Lynch, K., Sepeta, L., Wang, Y., Marshall, S., Gomez, L., Sigman, M., et al. (2012). Early childhood predictors of the social competence of adults with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 161–174.
Harris, M., Jones, D., Brookes, S., & Grant, J. (1986). Relations between the non-verbal context of maternal speech and rate of language development. Developmental Psychology, 4, 261–268.
Hill, E. L. (2004). Executive dysfunction in autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 26–32.
Kasari, C., Freeman, S., & Paparella, T. (2006). Joint attention and symbolic play in young children with autism: A randomized controlled intervention study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 611–620.
Kasari, C., Gulsrud, A. C., Wong, C., Kwon, S., & Locke, J. (2010). Randomized controlled caregiver mediated joint engagement intervention for toddlers with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 1045–1056.
Kasari, C., Paparella, T., Freeman, S., & Jahromi, L. B. (2008). Language outcome in autism: Rrandomized comparison of joint attention and play interventions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 125–137.
Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E. H., Jr, Leventhal, B., DiLavre, P., et al. (2000). The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 205–223.
McDuffie, A., & Yoder, P. (2010). Types of parent verbal responsiveness that predict language in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 1026–1039.
Mullen, E. M. (1995). Mullen scales of early learning. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service Inc.
Rogers, S. J., Hepburn, S. L., Stackhouse, T., & Wehner, E. A. (2003). Imitation performance in toddlers with autism and those with other developmental disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 44, 763–781.
Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1991). A theoretical approach to the deficits in infantile autism. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 137–162.
Rushton, J. P., Brainerd, C. J., & Pressley, M. (1983). Behavioral development and construct validity: The principle of aggregation. Psychological Bulletin, 94, 18–38.
Shumway, S., & Wetherby, A. (2009). Communicative acts of children with autism spectrum disorders in the second year of life. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 1139–1156.
Sigman, M., & Ruskin, E. (1999). Continuity and change in the social competence of children with autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64, Serial No. 256.
Siller, M., & Sigman, M. (2002). The behaviors of parents and children with autism predict the subsequent development of their children’s communication. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 77–89.
Siller, M., & Sigman, M. (2008). Modeling longitudinal change in the language abilities of children with autism: Parent behaviors and child characteristics as predictors of change. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1691–1704.
StataCorp. (2013). Stata statistical software: Release 13. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP.
Tager-Flusberg, H., Joseph, R., & Folstein, S. (2001). Current directions in research on autism. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 7, 21–29.
Tager-Flusberg, H., Paul, R., & Lord, C. (2005). Language and communication in autism. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (pp. 335–364). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bornstein, M. H., & Baumwell, L. (2001). Maternal responsiveness and children’s achievement of language milestones. Child Development, 72, 748–767.
Tapp, J. T. (2003). ProcoderDV [Computer software and manual]. http://procoder.vueinnovations.com/sites/default/files/public/d10/ProcoderDVManual_0.pdf.
Tapp, J. T. (2013). Procoder merger [computer software]. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.
Toth, K., Muson, J., Meltzoff, A. N., & Dawson, G. (2006). Early predictors of communication development in young children with autism spectrum disorder: Joint attention, imitation and toy play. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 993–1005.
Trevarthen, C. (1979). Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A description of primary intersubjectivity. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech: The beginning of interpersonal communication (pp. 321—348). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trevarthen, C., & Hubley, P. (1978). Secondary intersubjectivity: Confidence, confiding and acts of meaning in the first year. In A. Lock (Ed.), Action, gesture and symbol: The emergence of language (pp. 183–229). London: Academic Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Werner, E., & Dawson, G. (2005). Validation of the phenomenon of autistic regression using home videotapes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 889–895.
Wetherby, A. M., & Prizant, B. M. (2002). CSBS DP manual (First normed edition). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Wetherby, A. M., Watt, N., Morgan, L., & Shumway, S. (2007). Social communication profiles of children with autism spectrum disorders late in the second year of life. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 960–975.
Wetherby, A. M., Woods, J., Allen, L., Cleary, J., Dickinson, H., & Lord, C. (2004). Early indicators of autism spectrum disorders in the second year of life. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 473–493.
Yoder, P. J., & Stone, W. (2006). Treatment of responding to and initiating joint attention. In T. Charman & W. Stone (Eds.), Social and communication development in autism spectrum disorders: Early identification, diagnosis, and intervention (pp. 117–142). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Yoder, P. J., & Symons, F. (2010). Observational measurement of behavior. New York, NY: Springer.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders grant R01DC006893-01A2, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center grant P30HD15052, and Institute of Educational Sciences grant R324B080005. We would like to thank the children and families that participated in this research, and the research staff that worked diligently on this project: Ariel Schwartz, Nicole Thompson, Elizabeth Gardner, and Kristen Fite, Maura Tourian, Lucy Stefani, Amanda Haskins, Danielle Kopkin, Ann Firestine, Olivia Fairchild, Kathleen Berry. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bottema-Beutel, K., Yoder, P.J., Hochman, J.M. et al. The Role of Supported Joint Engagement and Parent Utterances in Language and Social Communication Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 2162–2174 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2092-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2092-z