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. 2020 Jan;50(1):224-237.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04248-x.

Validity of Vocal Communication and Vocal Complexity in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Jena McDaniel  1 , Paul Yoder  2 , Annette Estes  3 , Sally J Rogers  4
Affiliations

Validity of Vocal Communication and Vocal Complexity in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Jena McDaniel et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

To identify valid measures of vocal development in young children with autism spectrum disorder in the early stages of language learning, we evaluated the convergent validity, divergent validity, and sensitivity to change (across 12 months) of two measures of vocal communication and two measures of vocal complexity through conventional coding of communication samples. Participants included 87 children with autism spectrum disorder (M = 23.42 months at entry). All four vocal variables demonstrated consistent evidence of convergent validity, divergent validity, and sensitivity to change with large effect sizes for convergent validity and sensitivity to change. The results highlight the value of measuring vocal communication and vocal complexity in future studies.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Language; Validity; Vocalizations.

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Conflict of interest statement

SR has potential conflicts of interest related to publications related to interventions used in this study for which she receives royalties. However, all royalties from those publications were donated to autism research. JM, PY, and AE declare that they have no conflict of interest. JM conceived of the study, participated in the design, coded the data, interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript; PY participated in the design, helped interpret the data and draft the manuscript, and was a site PI on the grant. AE and SR were a site and overall PI, respectively, on the grant, participated in the overall design of the overarching study, led recruitment efforts, supported interventions for the participants and their families over the course of the study, and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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