Nonverbal communication skills in young children with autism.
OBJECTIVE
The study was to examine nonverbal communication in young children with autism.


METHODS
The participants were 23 young children with autism (mean CA = 32.79 months), 23 CA and MA-matched children with developmental delay and 22 18-20-month-old, and 22 13-15-month-old typically developing toddlers and infants. The abbreviated Early Social Communication Scales [Mundy et al. 1996, Early social communication scales (ESCS)] were used to test three types of nonverbal communicative skills, i.e., joint attention, requesting, and social interaction. Both frequency and proportion analyses were done in group comparisons.


RESULTS
(1) Two- to three-year-old children with autism displayed deficits in joint attention ability, especially high-level skills. (2) The deficit in terms of frequency of communication was marked even compared with typically developing infants with younger mental age. (3) Young children with autism had different nonverbal communication profile compared with all three comparison groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Early social-communicative difficulties in autism involve early triadic communications involving joint attention and possibly dyadic turn-taking skills, which has implications for both early screening and early intervention.
Chiang
Chung-Hsin
CH
Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University, Min-Hsiung, Chia-Yi, Taiwan.
Soong
Wei-Tsuen
WT
Lin
Tzu-Ling
TL
Rogers
Sally J
SJ
D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*