Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:54:20.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The language patterns mothers and fathers employ with their autistic boys and girls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

M. Mary Konstantareas ,
Lisa Mandel  and
Soula Homatidis
M. Mary Konstantareas*
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto
Lisa Mandel
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto
Soula Homatidis
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto
*
M. Mary Konstantareas, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The special features of speech addressed to autistic children by their mothers and fathers were examined in an effort to clarify how the child's level of functioning influenced parental language style. A total of 12 children, 6 boys and 6 girls, half of whom were higher functioning and verbal and the remainder lower functioning and nonverbal, were videotaped in a 15-minute interaction with their mothers and fathers. The total number of utterances used was comparable for mothers and fathers, but mothers employed shorter mean lengths of utterance and more prompts to elicit speech or motoric activity when their children were lower functioning and nonverbal than when they were higher functioning and verbal. The higher functioning, verbal children were more frequently reinforced for speech, while the lower functioning, nonverbal children were more likely to be given indirect directives. Fathers issued direct directives more frequently than mothers, while mothers were more likely to employ prompts to stimulate their children's speech, particularly when they were lower functioning. Thus, both mothers and fathers of autistic children appear to be sensitive to their child's particular presenting characteristics, but differ in how they accommodate to them.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 403 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Bakcman, R., & Adamson, L. (1984). Coordinating attention to people and objects in mother-infant and peer-infant interaction. Child Development, 55, 1278–1289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, R. Q. (1979). Parent, child, and reciprocal influences. American Psychologist, 34, 821–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, R. Q., & Harper, L. V. (1977). Child effects on adults. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berko Gleason, J. (1975). Fathers and other strangers: Men's speech to young children. In Dato, D. P. (Ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics: Theory and application (pp. 289–297). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Bristol, M. M. (1984). Family resources and successful adaptation to autistic children. In Schopler, E. & Mesibov, G. B. (Eds.), The effects of autism on the family (pp. 289–310). New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. (1983). The acquisition of pragmatic commitments. In Golinkoff, R. M. (Ed.), The transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication: Issues and implications (pp. 27–42). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cantwell, D. P., Baker, L., & Rutter, M. (1977). Families of autistic and dysphasic children. II. Mothers' speech to the children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 7, 313–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coleman, M., & Gillberg, C. (1985). The biology of the autistic syndromes. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
DeMyer, M. K. (1979). Parents and children in autism. Toronto: Wiley.Google Scholar
DeMyer, M. K., Hingtgen, J. N., & Jackson, R. K. (1981). Infantile autism reviewed: A decade of research. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7, 388–451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DePaulo, B. M., & Bonvillian, J. D. (1978). The effect of language development on the special characteristics of speech addressed to children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 7, 189–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldstein, S., Konstantareas, M. M., Oxman, J., & Webster, C. D. (1982). The chronography of interactions with autistic speakers: An initial report. Journal of Communication Disorders, 15, 451–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldfarb, W., Goldfarb, N., & Scholl, H. H. (1966). The speech of mothers of schizophrenic children. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 1220–1227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldfarb, W., Yudkovitch, E., & Goldfarb, N. (1973). Verbal symbols to designate objects: An experimental study of communication in mothers of schizophrenic children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 3, 281–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golinkoff, R. M., & Ames, G. J. (1979). A comparison of fathers' and mothers' speech with their young children. Child Development, 50, 28–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, S. L., Wolchik, S. A., & Milch, R. E. (1982). Changing the speech of autistic children and their parents. Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 4, 151–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howlin, P., Cantwell, D., Marchant, R., Berger, M., & Rutter, M. (1973). Analyzing mothers' speech to young autistic children: A methodological study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1, 317–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Konstantareas, M. M. (1985). Review of evidence on the relevance of sign language in the early communication training of autistic children. Australian Journal of Human Communication Disorders, 13, 77–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konstantareas, M. M., & Homatidis, S. (1988). Stress and differential parental involvement in families of autistic children and learning disabled children. In Hibbs, E. D. (Ed.), Children and families: Studies in prevention and intervention (pp. 321–336). Washington, DC: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Leiter, R. (1969). The Leiter International Performance Scale. Chicago: Stoelting.Google Scholar
Levy-Shiff, R. (1986). Mother–father–child interactions in families with a mentally retarded young child. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 91, 141–149.Google ScholarPubMed
Lock, A. (1978). The emergence of language. In Lock, A. (Ed.), Action, gesture and symbol: The emergence of language (pp. 3–20). London: Academic.Google Scholar
Masur, E. F., & Gleasen, J. B. (1980). Parent–child interaction and the acquisition of lexical information during play. Developmental Psychology, 16, 410–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, L., & Pien, D. (1980). Mother conversational behavior as a function of interactional intent. Journal of Child Language, 9, 337–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moellman-Landa, R., & Olswang, L. B. (1984). Effects of adult communication behaviors on language-impaired children's verbal output. Applied Psycholinguistics, 5, 117–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moerk, E. (1972). Principles of interaction in language learning. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 18, 229–258.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (1–2, No. 149).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen-Fulero, L. (1982). Style and stability in mother conversational behavior. Journal of Child Language, 5, 391–402.Google Scholar
Phillips, J. R. (1973). Syntax and vocabulary of mothers' speech to young children: Age and sex comparisons. Child Development, 44, 182–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynell, J. K. (1978). Manual for the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (revised). Windsor, England: NFER-Nelson.Google Scholar
Ryan, J. (1974). Early language development: Towards a communicational analysis. In Richards, M. P. (Ed.), The integration of the child into a social world (pp. 185–213). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schopler, E., Reichler, R. J., DeVellis, R. F., & Daly, K. (1980). Toward objective classification of childhood autism: Childhood autism rating scale (CARS). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10, 91–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuler, A. L. (1980). Aspects of communication. In Fay, W. H. & Schuler, A. L. (Eds.), Emerging language in autistic children (pp. 87–112). Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1977). The development of conversation between mothers and babies. Journal of Child Language, 4, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoneman, Z., Brody, G. H., & Abbott, D. (1983). In-home observations of young Down syndrome children with their mothers and fathers. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 87, 591–600.Google ScholarPubMed
Tsai, L., Stewart, M. A., & August, G. (1981). Implication of sex differences in the familial transmission of infantile autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 11, 165–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uzgiris, I., & Hunt, J. (1975). Assessment in infancy: Ordinal scales of psychological development. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Vandell, D. (1979). Effects of a play group experience on mother–son and father–son interaction. Developmental Psychology, 15, 379–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolchik, S. A. (1983). Language patterns of parents of young autistic and normal children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 13, 167–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolchik, S. A., & Harris, S. L. (1982). Language environments of autistic and normal children matched for language age: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 12, 43–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed