Abstract
Code- and meaning-related emergent literacy skills of autistic children were compared to those of non-autistic children who did not differ on age and full-scale IQ (FSIQ). The associations between joint attention skills and early literacy abilities were of interest. Seventeen autistic and 20 non-autistic children (48 to 72 months) participated. Parents completed a joint attention measure and children completed code- and meaning-related emergent literacy skills measures. Findings showed that autistic and non-autistic children did not differ on code-related emergent literacy skills, letter knowledge and phonological awareness, but autistic children scored lower on print conceptsand name writing. Autistic children also scored lower on meaning-related skills assessing the comprehensive and quality of oral narratives. FSIQ predicted print concept knowledge in all children. Receptive vocabulary was a significant predictor of meaning-related skills in autistic children and the quality of oral narratives in non-autisticchildren. Joint attention was also a significant predictor of oral narrative quality in autistic children. Recommendations for promoting emergent literacy skills using a strength-based approach are discussed.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Portions of this research were presented at the International Society for Autism Research’s annual meeting (2019). We wish to thank the children, parents, and school staff who made this study possible.
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I.M. and D.D. conceived the original idea. I.M. carried out the experiment under D.D.’s supervision. I.M., D.D., and B.S. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
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Misiunaite, I., Davidson, D. & Sawyer, B. Code- and Meaning-related Emergent Literacy Skills and Joint Attention in Autistic and Non-Autistic Children. J Autism Dev Disord (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06469-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06469-1