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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Heather MooreORCiD, Dr Victoria Grahame, Emerita Professor Helen McConachie, Professor Jeremy Parr, Professor Ann Le Couteur
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2024.We investigated autistic children’s generalisation of social communication over time across three settings during a play-based assessment with different adults and explore the potential moderating effects on generalisation of age, nonverbal IQ and level of restricted and repetitive behaviours. The social communication abilities of 248 autistic children (2–11 years, 21% female, 22% single parent, 60% white) from three UK sites were assessed from 1984 video interactions in three contexts with three different interaction partners (parent/home, teaching assistant/school, researcher/clinic) at baseline, midpoint (+ 7m) and endpoint (+ 12m) within the Paediatric Autism Communication Trial-Generalised (PACT-G), a parent-mediated social communication intervention. Children’s midpoint social communication at home generalised to school at midpoint and to clinic at endpoint. Generalisation was stronger from home to school and clinic than school to home and clinic. Generalisation was not moderated by age, nonverbal IQ or restricted and repetitive behaviour. Broader child development did not explain the pattern of results. The current study is the largest study to date to explore generalisation with autistic children and provides novel insight into their generalisation of social communication skills. Further research is needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of facilitators of generalisation across settings and interaction partners in order to develop targeted strategies for interventions to enhance outcomes for young autistic children.
Author(s): Carruthers S, Charman T, Leadbitter K, Ellis C, Taylor L, Moore H, Taylor C, James K, Balabanovska M, Langhorne S, Aldred C, Slonims V, Grahame V, Howlin P, McConachie H, Parr J, Emsley R, Le Couteur A, Green J, Pickles A, PACT-G Trial Group
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Year: 2024
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 14/05/2024
Acceptance date: 19/04/2024
Date deposited: 29/05/2024
ISSN (print): 0162-3257
ISSN (electronic): 1573-3432
Publisher: Springer
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06370-x
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-024-06370-x
Data Access Statement: The analyses presented were preregistered (https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=dw43ak) with departures noted in the Supplement Materials. The analytic code necessary to reproduce the principal analyses presented are also available from https://osf.io/nxvum/. Data are available from the study PI (JG) upon reasonable request.
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