Conversation Skills in Chinese-Speaking Preschoolers with Autism: The Contributing Role of Parents’ Verbal Responsiveness

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have conversation deficits, yet the growth of conversation abilities is understudied, especially in Chinese-speaking populations. Little is known about whether their parents’ verbal responsiveness and redirectives are related to their conversation skills. Children with ASD ( N = 37; M = 5;5) and their parents contributed their language samples. These children interacted with their parents at four time points over nine months. The number of conversational turns and the proportion of child-initiated conversation (but not the proportion of children’s appropriate responses) grew over nine months. After controlling for time, autism severity, and language skills, parents’ verbal responsiveness positively predicted children’s appropriate responses. Parents’ redirectives negatively predicted the proportion of children’s appropriate responses and the number of conversational turns.