Early Communication Development in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Summary
Communication development unfolds through early non-verbal behaviours—eye gaze, gesture and vocalisation—that typically precede first words. In autism spectrum disorders (ASD), these early markers often diverge from typical trajectories. Many children display reduced joint attention, limited gestural communication and delays in receptive and expressive language during the first two years of life. A subgroup experiences developmental regression, characterised by loss of previously acquired social-communication skills. Heterogeneity is pronounced, with non-verbal cognitive ability influencing the pace and pattern of communicative milestones. A precise understanding of these early trajectories underpins global efforts to refine screening tools, guide timely interventions and optimise outcomes across diverse settings.
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Early Communication Development in Autism Spectrum Disorders publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in early communication development in autism spectrum disorders across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Joint attention: The capacity to coordinate attention between a social partner and objects or events, fundamental to social-communication development.
Gesture: A form of non-verbal communication using hand or body movements to convey intent or meaning, predictive of subsequent language development.
Receptive language: The ability to understand words and sentences spoken by others.
Expressive language: The ability to convey thoughts, needs or ideas through spoken words or signs.
Regression: The loss of previously acquired developmental skills, often in social communication or language, occurring in a subset of children with ASD.
Non-verbal cognition: Intellectual abilities assessed without reliance on spoken language, influencing developmental trajectories in ASD.
References
- Attainment and loss of early social‐communication skills across neurodevelopmental conditions in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2023).
- Phenotypic characteristics and rehabilitation effect of children with regressive autism spectrum disorder: a prospective cohort study. BMC Psychiatry (2024).
- Gesture and Language Trajectories in Early Development: An Overview From the Autism Spectrum Disorder Perspective. Frontiers in Psychology (2019).
- Bayonet-shaped language development in autism with regression: a retrospective study. Molecular Autism (2021).
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