Verbal Responsiveness in Parents of Toddlers With and Without Autism During a Home Observation
When parents repeat and build on toddler talk at home, language grows faster for kids with autism and delays.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Delehanty et al. (2023) watched parents and toddlers at home.
Some toddlers had autism, some had delays, some were typical.
The team counted how often parents used language-expanding replies like repeating a word or asking for more words.
What they found
Parents of kids with autism or delays used fewer of these replies.
Kids whose parents gave more replies later gained more words.
The link held for all groups, but the gap was biggest for autism.
How this fits with other research
Perez et al. (2015) saw the same boost during play: when moms followed the child’s lead and added a cue like the child’s name, kids spoke more right away.
Cohenour et al. (2026) seems to disagree: toddlers who already had strong expressive skills grew slower. The difference is sample. Delehanty mixed autism, delays, and typical kids. Torrey studied only infants flagged for autism features.
Brignell et al. (2018) carried the story forward: once verbal kids with autism hit age four, their word growth matched peers if starting IQ and language were similar. Parent replies may help close that early gap so kids can reach that even track.
Why it matters
You can coach parents in any setting to expand and ask. A simple script: repeat the child’s word, add one new word, wait. This low-cost habit predicts real language gains, especially for toddlers with autism or delays. Start now, track words monthly, and watch the curve rise.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examined patterns of verbal responsiveness in parents of toddlers (Mage = 20 months) later identified with autism (n = 121), developmental delay (n = 46), or typical development (n = 44) during an hourlong home observation. Parent verbal responsiveness (PVR) was compared using MANOVA across groups and by child expressive language phase. Multiple regression analyses controlling for child age and maternal education were employed to examine the extent to which PVR predicted variance in concurrent child social communication and prospective language skills. Parents provided synchronous responses approximately 90% of the time. Parents of children with autism and developmental delay used smaller proportions of responses that added linguistic information (i.e., expansions and follow-in directives for language) than those of children with typical development. Parents of children in the preverbal phase were more likely, on average, to affirm their children’s acts of intentional communication or provide a follow-in directive for action that did not necessitate a verbal response than to expand or elicit language. Regression results indicated that parental use of expansions and follow-in directives for language made significant contributions to child language outcomes. The patterns we observed may reflect parents’ attunement to their child’s developmental level. Responsiveness to a child’s focus of attention is vital in the earlier stages of language learning; however, results point to the potential importance of parental expansions and follow-in directives for promoting language development across groups in this sample. Directions for intervention research targeting PVR and language skills in toddlers with autism and developmental delays are discussed. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10803-023-05935-6.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s10803-023-05935-6