Developmental changes of expressive language and interactive competences in children with autism

It is well established that language development in children with autism is disturbed in a number of ways, and evidence is accumulating that their emerging linguistic skills may be related to interactive competences such as joint attention, imitation and certain aspects of play as has been found in normally developing children. The present study examined developmental changes in expressive language in relation to these variables in 132 children of the autistic spectrum aged 5–8 years using standardized tools for language measurement and psychological assessment. The results corroborated reports on relationships between expressive language level and joint attention, interpersonal communication with and without the use of objects, and play but contradicted data on the importance of imitation. Play and language level were found to be firmly related suggesting that children with autism draw more on “conceptual understanding” than “symbolizing ability”—a possible contributing factor to their language deficits. An evaluation of expressive language and interactive abilities of the entire sample corroborated evidence on developmental pathways and developmental psychopathology.