The effect of recasting by mothers with different conversational styles on the communication behavior of autistic children: Lag sequential analysis.
Let the child steer; moms who recast in child-led or equal-partner style get more topic starts and longer utterances from their autistic preschoolers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched moms and their preschoolers with autism at home.
Moms used three styles while they recast child speech: child-dominant, equal-partner, or mother-dominant.
Lag-sequential analysis counted what the child said next, second by second.
What they found
Child-dominant and equal-partner styles made kids start new topics and add more words.
Mother-dominant style did not spark extra talking.
Recasts only help when the child leads or shares the floor.
How this fits with other research
Cappadocia et al. (2012) already showed that parent synchrony drives gains; this study zooms in on exactly how to keep that synchrony during recasts.
Krupa et al. (2024) saw low joint engagement in free Tamil play, but here engineered child-led recasting lifted child speech—context explains the clash.
Ashtari et al. (2021) used the same lag method and found moms already match kids; Xiaoyan et al. now prove we can coach moms to do it on purpose.
Why it matters
Tell moms to follow the child’s topic and speak as an equal, not a boss.
One shift doubles child-initiated talk without extra toys or time.
Try it in your next parent coaching call—model the equal-partner style and watch the child steer the chat.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Recasting is the adult rephrasing of a child's immediately preceding utterance. It has been shown to have outstanding effects on promoting language development in autistic children. This study used lag sequential analysis to explore the impact of mothers' conversational styles on the communicative behavior of autistic children when using recasting. This study recruited 30 Chinese autistic children (aged 3-6 years) and their mothers. The utterances of the children and their mothers during 30-min interactions were transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The mothers' conversational styles were determined by the percentages of child-dominant, mother-dominant, and equality styles. The results indicated that mothers' conversational styles were predominantly child-dominant, differing from the expected mother-dominant style that is typical in Eastern cultures and traditions. However, some mothers still demonstrated a significant proportion of mother-dominant style in their conversation, while some exhibited a considerable amount of equality style. Moreover, mothers with a mainly child-dominant style and minimal use of mother-dominant and equality styles used recasting after the child's response, triggering the child to initiate new topics. Mothers with a child-dominant style combined with prominent mother-dominant features implemented untargeted self-recasting, the children did not respond significantly. Mothers with a child-dominant style combined with prominent equality features used recasting after the children responded, initiated, or expanded the conversation, which often facilitated the child's expansion of the conversation. These findings provide suggestions for designing parent-mediated early language interventions for autistic children.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3052