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Behavioral predictors of improved speech output in minimally verbal children with autism

K. Chenausky,A. Norton,H. Tager-Flusberg,G. Schlaug

Published 2018 in Autism Research

ABSTRACT

We investigated the relationship between eight theoretically motivated behavioral variables and a spoken‐language‐related outcome measure, after 25 sessions of treatment for speech production in 38 minimally verbal children with autism. After removing potential predictors that were uncorrelated with the outcome variable, two remained. We used both complete‐case and multiple‐imputation analyses to address missing predictor data and performed linear regressions to identify significant predictors of change in percent syllables approximately correct after treatment. Baseline phonetic inventory (the number of English phonemes repeated correctly) was the most robust predictor of improvement. In the group of 17 participants with complete data, ADOS score also significantly predicted the outcome. In contrast to some earlier studies, nonverbal IQ, baseline levels of expressive language, and younger age did not significantly predict improvement. The present results are not only consistent with previous studies showing that verbal imitation and autism severity significantly predict spoken language outcomes in preschool‐aged minimally verbal children with autism, but also extend these findings to older minimally verbal children with autism. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1356–1365. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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