Paternal speech directed to young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and typical development.
Fathers of preschoolers with autism already fine-tune their language—interventions should harness this natural scaffolding instead of ignoring it.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bentenuto et al. (2021) watched fathers talk to their preschoolers. Half the kids had autism. Half were typically developing.
The team recorded each dad at home for 30 minutes. They counted every word and question.
What they found
Dads of autistic kids used more descriptions. They asked fewer test questions. They asked more "How do you feel?" type questions.
The more social trouble a child had, the more the dad shifted his words. Fathers were already fine-tuning on their own.
How this fits with other research
Ruiz (1998) saw the same thing in mothers. Moms also matched their talk to the child’s focus. Together, the studies show both parents naturally scaffold.
Pfadt (1991) looked at younger toddlers and found many ignored their mother’s voice. That seems like a clash, but the kids were younger and heard taped speech, not live dad talk.
Saré et al. (2020) found fathers drop out of school-age therapy. Arianna’s work says dads already do good language work at home. Invite them in earlier instead of waiting.
Why it matters
Stop teaching fathers to “talk like moms.” They already tweak descriptions and questions to fit the child’s needs. Build goals that use what dads already do. Ask fathers to share their home scripts and expand them. This saves training time and keeps both parents engaged from day one.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Few studies have investigated the characteristics of father language directed to typically developing children (TD), and father speech directed to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is largely under investigated. Considering the importance of involving fathers of children with ASD in research and clinical practice, the main purpose of this study was to investigate paternal speech directed to children with ASD compared to that of fathers of TD children. METHODS: To this aim, we coded multiple functional aspects of speech during 10-min naturalistic dyadic play interactions between fathers and their preschool children with ASD (n = 20) and with TD (n = 20). RESULTS: Results showed that fathers of children with ASD displayed a peculiar child-directed language that seems to reflect the effort to provide enhanced scaffolding and reduced demands while sustaining a challenging social interaction. Specifically, fathers of children with ASD used more descriptions, fewer questions in general but more questions about child internal states. Moreover, fathers adapted aspects of their information-salient speech to the severity of child impairments. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the importance to include fathers in early developmental intervention programs for children with ASD, by underlying fathers' spontaneous adaptation to their children's needs.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103886