Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.
Department of Physics, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.
Autism Res. 2021 Aug;14(8):1658-1669. doi: 10.1002/aur.2526. Epub 2021 May 3.
Children's preschool experiences have consequences for development. However, it is not clear how children's real-time interactions with peers affect their language development; nor is it clear whether these processes differ between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and two other groups of children, those with general developmental delays (DD) and typically developing (TD) children. We used objective measures of movement and vocalizations to quantify children's real-time dyadic vocal interactions and quantify classroom social networks. Participants included 56 preschoolers (22 female; M = 50.14 months) in five inclusive classrooms for children with ASD or DD and their TD peers. Each class was observed monthly on two to five occasions. Overall, children vocalized more to peers who had vocalized more to them in the previous observation. These dyadic vocalization patterns were associated with group differences in social network analyses. Modularity, the cohesiveness of group ties, was lower among children with ASD than it was among TD children or children with DD. Individually, children with ASD exhibited lower total levels of vocalizations with peers (lower degree centrality) than TD children and children with DD. In an exploratory analysis with a subset of the participants, children's degree centrality was strongly associated with their end-of-year assessed language abilities, even when accounting for mean differences between groups. Findings highlight the impact peers and social networks play in real-time language use and in the developing language abilities of children with ASD in inclusion classrooms. LAY SUMMARY: This study objectively measured associations between children's peer vocal interactions and assessed language abilities in inclusion classrooms for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their peers. All children benefited from peers talking to them, but children with ASD were less central to classroom speech networks than were typically developing children. Children's centrality to social speech networks, regardless of ASD status, was associated with assessed language abilities.
儿童的学前经历对其发展有影响。然而，目前尚不清楚儿童与同伴的实时互动如何影响他们的语言发展；也不清楚这些过程是否在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童与其他两组儿童（发育迟缓（DD）和典型发育（TD）儿童）之间存在差异。我们使用运动和发声的客观测量来量化儿童的实时双人发声互动，并量化课堂社交网络。参与者包括五个自闭症或发育迟缓儿童和他们的 TD 同伴的包容性教室中的 56 名学龄前儿童（22 名女性；M=50.14 个月）。每个班级每月观察两到五次。总体而言，儿童对前一次观察中更多向他们发声的同伴发出更多声音。这些二元发声模式与社交网络分析中的群体差异相关。与 TD 儿童或发育迟缓儿童相比，自闭症儿童的网络模块化（群体联系的凝聚力）较低。个体而言，自闭症儿童与 TD 儿童和发育迟缓儿童相比，与同伴的发声总量（中心度较低）较低。在对部分参与者的探索性分析中，即使考虑到组间平均差异，儿童的中心度也与他们年末评估的语言能力密切相关。研究结果强调了同伴和社交网络在实时语言使用以及自闭症儿童在融合课堂中发展语言能力方面的影响。
非专业人士，仅供参考。
