efficacy of vocal imitation training for children with autism: preliminary data

Background:

Children with autism have been noted to present with deficits in imitation skills (Rogers & Pennington, 1991), which appears to be associated with their deficits in orienting to social stimuli. Imitation has been examined as one of the predictors of later language development though the primary focus in the research to date has been on imitation of actions (McDuffie, Yoder, & Stone, 2005). Vocal imitation has not been examined in this population. Thus, examining both vocal imitation itself and its impact of imitation training for children with autism would be an important contribution.

Objectives:

It was hypothesized that vocal imitation training will bootstrap social interaction for children with autism who are almost nonverbal. Research questions included: 1) Can children with autism learn vocal imitation? 2) Does vocal imitation training increase dyadic eye gaze as a measure of social connectivity? 3) Is vocal imitation training associated with subsequent increases in word production?

Methods:

Four children age between 2 and 5 years, who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders based on DSM-IV criteria by professionals in the community, and producing less than 50 words were recruited for this study. Vocal imitation training was provided within a play context by the first author three times weekly for ten weeks at our laboratory. Each training session was videotaped behind a one-way mirror. Data were collected at baseline, during training, and post training.

Results:

The four children presented with highly variable profiles on the measures of vocal imitation, eye gaze, and caregiver reported word production.

Conclusions:

Data from this preliminary study suggest that vocal imitation training could be beneficial for children with autism who are almost nonverbal. The results of this study indicate the need for further examination of the efficacy of vocal imitation training.