Contributions of Motor and Social Skill to the Gesture Production of Young Autistic Children in the Prelinguistic/Emerging Linguistic Stage

Background and aims Young Autistic children in the prelinguistic/emerging linguistic stage often exhibit difficulties in motor, social, and communicative skills. Analysis of gesture—a skill with motor, social, and communication components that emerges prior to spoken language—may provide insight into the interplay of these skills before the onset of speech, potentially leading to improved early intervention approaches. Methods This secondary analysis included data from 80 Autistic children aged 18 to 59 months who participated in one of the two larger studies. Video recordings of parent–child interactions and a standardized communication assessment were collected at baseline. Child gesture rate (gestures produced per 10 min) was extracted from these videos and analyzed for relationships with standardized measures of child motor and social skill. Further, child point gestures were coded for motor complexity (using a novel coding system) and social sophistication (number of coordinated communicative behaviors and level of communicative intention). Results Standardized measures of child social and gross (but not fine) motor skills each uniquely contributed to child gesture rate, with social skills exerting a stronger influence. Motor complexity of points was significantly positively related to both measures of social sophistication. Conclusions The results of the present study indicate related but unique roles for social and motor skill in the gesture production of young Autistic children. Implications These findings indicate the need for further research to explore the effectiveness of targeting motor skills into early intervention in support of later social communication.