Backgrounds and aims

Early symbolic play abilities are closely related to long-term language development for both autistic and non-autistic children, but few studies have explored these relations for different dimensions of pretence and of language. The current study explores carer-reported measures of solitary symbolic play, object substitution and peer role play abilities at age 3, and their respective relations with parent-reported semantics, syntax and narrative abilities at age 7 for both autistic and non-autistic children.

Methods

We conducted secondary data analyses exploring links between different aspects of pretence and of language on the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children population cohort. We identified 92 autistic children and used propensity score matching to match them with 92 non-autistic children based on demographic and developmental information such as non-verbal IQ and socioeconomic status. We explored concurrent and longitudinal relations using correlation and regression models. Results: Both correlational and hierarchical regression analyses confirmed the significant effects of age 3 symbolic play abilities in facilitating age 7 semantics, syntax and narrative abilities for autistic children. We found that object substitution held most prominent influence, followed by peer role play and solitary symbolic play. In contrast, for non-autistic children, none of the age 3 symbolic play abilities were significant predictors, whereas socioeconomic status at birth and age 3 language abilities held significant influences on their age 7 semantics, syntax and narrative abilities. Conclusion: We discuss the implications of our findings for play interventions targeting language outcomes.

中文翻译：

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在自闭症和非自闭症儿童的匹配样本中，3 岁时的单独符号游戏、物体替代和同伴角色扮演技能预测 7 岁结构语言能力的不同方面

背景和目标

早期符号游戏能力与自闭症和非自闭症儿童的长期语言发展密切相关，但很少有研究针对假装和语言的不同维度探索这些关系。目前的研究探讨了 3 岁时照顾者报告的孤独符号游戏、物体替代和同伴角色扮演能力的测量，以及它们与自闭症和非自闭症儿童 7 岁时父母报告的语义、句法和叙述能力的各自关系。

方法

我们进行了二次数据分析，探索在澳大利亚儿童人群纵向研究中假装和语言的不同方面之间的联系。我们确定了 92 名自闭症儿童，并根据非语言智商和社会经济地位等人口统计和发展信息，使用倾向得分匹配将他们与 92 名非自闭症儿童进行匹配。我们使用相关和回归模型探索并发和纵向关系。结果：相关和层次回归分析都证实了 3 岁的符号游戏能力在促进自闭症儿童 7 岁的语义、句法和叙述能力方面的显着影响。我们发现，对象替换的影响最为显着，其次是同伴角色扮演和单独的象征性游戏。相比之下，对于非自闭症儿童，3 岁时的符号游戏能力都不是显着预测因素，而出生时的社会经济地位和 3 岁时的语言能力对他们 7 岁时的语义、句法和叙述能力有显着影响。结论：我们讨论了我们的研究结果对针对语言结果的游戏干预的影响。