Examination of the relationship between gestures and vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder at different language stages

ABSTRACT

In this study, the relationship between vocabulary and gesture use is examined in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at different language stages. A total of 72 children with ASD between the ages of 3.0 and 8.2 years participated in the study. Gesture use was assessed by using observation-based procedures, while the number of different words (NDW) and the mean length of utterance (MLU) was derived from conversational language samples. Significant differences were found in all gesture kinds among different language stages, in children with ASD. It was found that declarative deictic gestures and conventional/pantomime gestures meaningfully predict the NDW, while imperative deictic gestures do not. According to the findings of this study, gestures show different developmental features at different stages of language development in children with ASD. The findings show that declarative deictic gestures and conventional/pantomime gestures may play a significant role in vocabulary development in children with ASD.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism spectrum disorders
• deictic gestures
• conventional gestures
• pantomime gestures
• vocabulary
• language stage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Meral Çilem Ökcün-Akçamuş Ph.D. is an instructor in the department of special education at the Ankara University. She is interested in the imitation and play development in early childhood, prelinguistic communication skills, first language acquisition, and language and communication development in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Funda Acarlar is a professor in the department of special education at the Ankara University. Her main areas of research interest are language development, first language acquisition, language disorders in early and later childhood, and language and communication development in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Bahar Keçeli-Kaysili is an assistant professor in the department of special education at the Ankara University. Her main areas of research interest are the theory of mind, play development in early childhood, prelinguistic communication skills, and language and communication development in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Gamze Alak is a research assistant at the Kafkas University and a Ph.D. student at the Ankara University. She is particularly interested in the role of the family context in children’s language and communication development, prelinguistic communication skills and language and communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorders.

ORCID

Meral Çilem Ökcün-Akçamuş http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3297-9711

Bahar Keçeli Kaysili http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2187-2775

Gamze Alak http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4054-5617