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Language environments such as play contexts can impact children’s language production. Children with typically developing language use more complex and diverse language during symbolic play than during gross-motor play. Little is known about how language environments may impact the language of children with ASD. Our research questions asked: 1) do children with ASD use language differently in symbolic and gross-motor play contexts, and 2) given the heterogeneity of ASD, can we predict which language context works best for which children? Forty-nine preschool children with ASD and their parents were videotaped during 5 minutes each of symbolic and gross-motor play environments. Results indicated that children’s language production did not differ significantly across contexts in total utterances, types, tokens, type-token ratio, and most communicative functions. However, MLU and directives were higher in the gross-motor context, and the diversity of language functions was higher during the symbolic context. Age and ASD behaviors predicted language performance in play contexts. Choice of play environment may impact assessment of language in children with ASD, and may influence decisions of the best environment for different intervention goals. |
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