Patterns and Predictors of Language Development from 4 to 7 Years in Verbal Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

A Brignell; K Williams; K Jachno; M Prior; S Reilly; AT Morgan

Journal article

Patterns and Predictors of Language Development from 4 to 7 Years in Verbal Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

A Brignell, K Williams, K Jachno, M Prior, S Reilly, AT Morgan

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-3565-2

Abstract

This study used a prospective community-based sample to describe patterns and predictors of language development from 4 to 7 years in verbal children (IQ ≥ 70) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 26–27). Children with typical language (TD; n = 858–861) and language impairment (LI; n = 119) were used for comparison. Children with ASD and LI had similar mean language scores that were lower on average than children with TD. Similar proportions across all groups had declining, increasing and stable patterns. Language progressed at a similar rate for all groups, with progress influenced by IQ and language ability at 4 years rather than social communication skills or diagnosis of ASD. These fi..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Katrina Williams Author

Sheena Reilly Author

Angela Morgan Author

Related Projects (1)

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE IN SPEECH AND LANGUAGE NEUROBIOLOGY (CRE-SLANG)

Half a million Australian children have a speech/language disorder, tripling their changes of poor academic outcomes, limited employment opt..

Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

Funding for the Early Language in Victoria Study was provided by Project Grants #237106 and #9436958 from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and small grants from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University. The researchers acknowledge the Australian NHMRC for salary support through Practitioner Fellowships #491210 (S.R) and #1105008 (A.M); NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Speech and Language Neurobiology #1116976 (A.M, A.B). This paper is based on work completed by A.B for her PhD. A.B was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship. Infrastructure support was provided by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. We wish to thank the William Collie Trust Fund for their financial support. This funding organization was not involved in the development, design, analysis, or interpretation of the study.