It is common in intervention research to use measures of working memory either as an explanatory or a control variable. This study examines the contribution of cognitive abilities, including verbal working memory (WM) and attention, to language performance in first- and second-grade children. We assessed children (N = 414) on two forms of verbal…

This study compared between the roles of the socio-pragmatic and data-driven aspects of caregiver input in the vocabulary development of both Typically Developing (TD) Children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The role of Joint Attention (JA) and Supported Joint Engagement (SJE) episode types, as well as Follow-In (FI) Comments,…

The shape bias--generalising labels to same shaped objects--has been linked to attentional learning or referential intent. We explore these origins in children with typical development (TD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disorders (DD). In two conditions, a novel object was presented and either named or described.…

This study investigated social attention impairments in autism (social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress) and their relations to language ability. Three- to four-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 72), 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children (n = 34), and 12- to 46-month-old typically…