| Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 心理學系碩士班 === 106 === Background and objectives: Previous studies have shown that early language ability is related to long-term outcomes and adaptive function in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is an important issue to explore predictors of language development in young children with ASD. Joint attention and imitation were supported that they could enhance language development in young children with ASD. However, there were few longitudinal studies to examine that both joint attention and imitation contribute to language development in young children with ASD under 36-months-old. Therefore, the purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine that joint attention and imitation predict language development in young children with ASD less than 36 months.
Method: The participants were 74 young children with ASD aged 17-35 months (M = 24.2, SD = 4.4) at initial assessment who were followed up 18 months after their initial assessment. Taiwan version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds, (T-STAT; Chiang et al., 2013) was modified for measuring joint attention and imitation, including initiating joint attention (IJA), responding joint attention (RJA), object imitation and manual imitation. The IJA was divided into full-IJA (F-IJA) and partial-IJA (P-IJA). In addition, Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL; Mullen, 1995) was used for assessing language abilities, including receptive language, expressive language and overall language. Joint attention, imitation and language abilities were assessed at two time points.
Result: Language abilities at Time 1, RJA, object imitation and manual imitation were concurrently correlated with all of receptive language, expressive language and overall language. F-IJA and P-IJA concurrently correlated with receptive language, but F-IJA no significant correlated with expressive language. After contorlling chronological age, the significant concurrent predictors of all language abilities were manual imitation. In addition, the significant concurrent predictors of receptive language and overall language were RJA. Language abilities at Time 2, F-IJA, P-IJA, RJA, object imitation and manual imitation were concurrently correlated with all of receptive language, expressive language and overall language. After controlling chronological age, the significant concurrent predictors of all language abilities were object imitation. In addition, the significant concurrent predictors of expressive and overall language were manual imitation, whereas the significant concurrent predictor of expressive language was RJA. Language abilities at Time 2, all of receptive language, expressive language and overall language were longitudinally correlated with RJA, object imitation and manual imitation, but there were no significant correlated with F-IJA and P-IJA. After controlling chronological age, the significant longitudinal predictors of all language abilities were manual imitation. In addition, the significant longitudinal predictors of receptive language and overall language were RJA.
Conclusion: Results of this study showed that manual imitation was the concurrent and longitudinal predictors for all language abilities at Time 1 and Time 2 in young children with ASD. Manual imitation involved complex social interaction, with representation and intentional understanding ability, which is an important factor of early language development. In addition, the results also showed that RJA was the concurrent and longitudinal predictors for receptive language and overall language at Time 1 and at Time 2 in young children with ASD. RJA reflected understanding communicative intentions, so young children could correctly follow the adult''s attention and acquire language. The current findings provide implications for early intervention in young children with ASD.
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