The speech of mothers of schizophrenic children

Mothers' speech to autistic children: a preliminary causal analysis

Changes over time in the language patterns of autistic children and their parents were examined during the course of a home-based intervention programme. Although the language used by parents to their autistic children was not deficient, language modification procedures were found to lead to rapid changes in the verbal interaction between parents and children. Parents in the non-intervention, control group showed little change in their communication style. In the experimental group, but not in the control group, a close relationship was found between increases in the use of language-eliciting utterances by their mothers and improvements in children's socialized language. The pattern of association between parent and child language suggested that the main effect was of the parent on the child but that the extent of the child's language handicap constrained what could be achieved by treatment.

Maternal speech to verbal and higher functioning versus nonverbal and lower functioning autistic children

The relationship between autistic children's level of functioning and maternal speech to children was examined. Ten higher functioning verbal and 10 lower functioning nonverbal children were videotaped in a 15-minute interaction with their mothers. Results revealed that mothers of the higher functioning verbal children asked more questions, used more language modeling, gave more reinforcement for language, and answered more children-initiated questions than did mothers of the lower functioning nonverbal children. Mothers of the nonverbal children employed more directives, used shorter mean lengths of utterance, and reinforced their children's motoric rather than spoken behavior. Far from being poor models for linguistic behavior, mothers of autistic children appear, therefore, to be quite responsive to their children's relative capabilities.

Parental communication deviance in childhood onset schizophrenia spectrum and depressive disorders

Rates of parental communication deviance (CD) were compared in children with schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder and in contrast groups of children with major depression and dysthymic disorders. Results indicated significantly higher rates of CD in parents of schizophrenic and schizotypal children than in parents of children with major depression and dysthymic disorders. Schizophrenic and schizotypal children from high CD families showed the most severe impairments and the poorest attentional functioning. However, the small number of schizophrenic and schizotypal children with low CD parents underscored the strong association between schizophrenia spectrum disorders, parental CD and psychosocial and attentional impairment in the child.

Communicative behavior of adults with an autistic four-year-old boy and his nonhandicapped twin brother

Sixteen female preschool teachers were videotaped playing in dyads with a nonverbal, socially unresponsive autistic 4-year-old boy and his nonhandicapped fraternal twin brother. Eight adults were informed that the autistic child had a language disability and did not talk or understand much language; eight adults were not informed about any differences between the children. Language to the autistic child was simpler, more concrete, and more often accompanied by gestures than language to his brother for both groups of subjects. Informed teachers made greater speech modifications to the autistic child and were more successful at keeping him on-task than uninformed adults. The theoretical and practical implications of communicative adjustments to children with language and social impairments are discussed.

Language environments of autistic and normal children matched for language age: a preliminary investigation

The language patterns of the mothers and fathers of four autistic boys were compared with those of the parents of four normal boys matched for language age with the autistic children. Language patterns were assessed during two 20-minute free-play sessions videotaped in the subjects' homes. The tapes were reliably coded using an 11-category coding system. Only one difference between the language patterns of the parents of the autistic and normal children emerged: The parents of the normal children engaged in a greater proportion of adult-directed language than did the parents of the autistic children. Comparison of the language patterns of mothers and fathers revealed similarities and differences. Both the frequency and percentage of occurrence scores for direct requests for language were significantly greater for mothers than for fathers. However, although the frequency of reinforcement for language did not differ across the sexes, fathers had a greater percentage occurrence score than mothers. There were no other significant differences between the mothers and the fathers.

Families of autistic and dysphasic children. II. Mothers' speech to the children

This paper tests various hypotheses about deviance in the communication of mothers to their autistic children. The language of mothers of 13 autistic boys is compared to the language of mothers of 13 boys with developmental receptive dysphasia. The two groups of boys are of similar age, nonverbal intelligence, and language level. The language samples come from hour-long taped interactions between the mothers and their children in their homes. Aspects of maternal communication that are examined include: the amount of language used, the frequency usage of different types of utterances, the syntactic complexity of utterances, the grammaticality of utterances, the clarity of communication, and the tones of voice used. No differences were found between the two groups of mothers in level of language usage, pattern of functional interaction, or in overall clarity of communication. In conclusion, the findings of this study provide no support for the suggestion that autism is due wholly or in part to deviant patterns of mother-child communication.