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Increasing participation in reciprocal vocal interactions could facilitate speech and language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Child reciprocal vocal contingency (CRVC) is a new measure of a child’s participation in reciprocal vocal interactions in natural settings. We evaluated the construct validity of CRVC. Participants included 68 children with ASD 13 to 30 months old at study initiation. From daylong Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) audio recordings, we calculated operant contingency values using a three-event sequential analysis to quantify CRVC. Across 12 months, CRVC changed significantly suggesting potential malleability to intervention. Initial CRVC correlated significantly with expressive vocabulary 6 and 18 months later. CRVC 12 months post entry did not correlate with expressive vocabulary concurrently, but did 6 months later. As predicted, CRVC and problem solving correlations were non-significant, supporting divergent validity. Overall findings suggest continued development of CRVC is warranted.
This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH10003004), a US Department of Education Preparation of Leadership Personnel grant (H325D140087), and the National Institute for Child Health and Disorders through the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (P30HD15052). |
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