| 英文摘要 |
This study examined the relationship between prelinguistic communication and language development in children with autism and focused on three main research questions: (1) the prelinguistic nonverbal communication skills of children with autism; (2) the concurrent and predictive relationships among prelinguistic communication skills, cognitive developmental age, and expressive vocabulary at Time 1 and Time 2(6 months later); and (3) the best and significant predictors of expressive vocabulary at Time 1 and Time 2. Methods: Thirty children with autism spectrum disorders participated in this study. The average chronological age(CA) was 45.97 months, and the average cognitive mental age(MA) was 22.36 months. Three assessment tools were used in this study, namely the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), Taiwan Mandarin-Chinese version of the CDI, and the cognitive development subtest of a child development test battery for Taiwanese children. A combined expressive vocabulary inventory including all the words in the CDI-toddler form was used to avoid the ceiling effects of using only the infant form and the floor effect of using standardized language tests reported in previous studies. The average number of expressive vocabulary in the CDI-toddler form at Time 1 and Time 2 testing were 115.67 and 218.30, respectively. Results/Findings: (1) Of all spontaneous nonverbal communication behaviors during ESCS testing, 64% were initiating behavioral request (IBR) , and 24% were lower-level initiating joint attention (IJA) behaviors using only eye contact or gaze alternation. Furthermore, 12% were higher-form IJA behaviors involving pointing, pointing combined with eye contact, or showing objects. (2) No concurrent correlations were found among IBR, IJA, and RJA(responding joint attention) after the influences of CA and cognitive MA were partialled out. (3) The correlation coefficients between cognitive MA and the expressive vocabulary at Time 1 and Time 2 were .63 and .80, respectively. After CA and cognitive MA were partialled out, RJA was the only prelinguistic communication skill that had a partial correlation with Time 1 and Time 2 expressive vocabulary. (4) Although both cognitive MA and RJA were significantly correlated with time 1 expressive Vocabulary , when both factors were entered for multiple regression analysis, the only concurrent significant predictor for time 1 Expressive Vocabulary was RJA. (5) When both RJA and cognitive MA at Time 1 were entered for Time 2 expressive vocabulary regression analysis, both cognitive MA and RJA were significant predictors; however, the semipartial correlation coefficients indicated that RJA contributed considerably more to the prediction. Conclusions/Implications: Because the average expressive vocabulary of the subjects at Time 1 and Time 2 was 115.67 and 218.30 respectively, the results confirmed the unique contribution of RJA and general cognitive development to this stage of expressive vocabulary development, expanding the previous results regarding the importance of RJA for children with autism at a younger age (Wu Chiang, & Yu, 2010) or at different language developmental stages (e.g., Siller & Sigman, 2008). In addition, the nonsignificant partial correlations among IJA, RJA, and IBR after CA and cognitive MA were controlled for indicated that the underlying basis for the independence of these three skills should be investigated. |
