Record and code instances of parent-child interactions in semi-naturalistic settings. This can mean a playroom or in a pre-school lab. Recordings can be taken over a period of time in short periods - for example, five times over a year for 10 minutes each. 

Tasks can be preformed and focused on during these sessions, or it can be a general observation. 

Recording parent-child interactions

Grinnell College

Preverbal children with ASD tend to show fewer gestures compared to children with typical development. They are less likely to use pointing gestures to direct attention to objects or areas of interest, though they are able to make requests using gestures. Older children continue to show difficulties with gesture, either with timing or rate of use. People with ASD tend to use fewer metaphoric and beat gestures compared to typical development people, though their rates of iconic, deictic, and emblem gestures tend to be similar across the two groups.

Gestures in ASD

Controled for age and IQ, people with ASD have fewer gestures per verbal phrase compared to TD people. They also tend to have shorter narratives when talking/describing events. There tends to be a general similarity in the rate of gestures they make per type of gesture.


Gestures generated by people with ASD tend to be 'less clearly produced,' meaning the coders found it difficult to classify or interperate gestures. This may be due to motor functions or timing of the gesture in relation to speech. 

Gesture rate and quality

If gestures are ineffective ways of communicating information, there needs to be a different method for teaching children with ASD. 


-Teachers and parents need to be educated on ASD forms of communication so they can make adjustments to lessons or give clarrification as necessary. 


-Parents can verbalize whatever motion their child is doing for preverbal children, so that the gestures and words can be tied together.


-There can be praise when a child makes gestures to reinforce their use, and interventions to teach youth with ASD about co-speech gestures have been suggested. 

Educational implications of gesture development in ASD

Autism affects the gesture production, but the relation to language development still exists. Parent's verbal responces in responce to what a child with ASD was focusing on tends to have better language outcomes compared to attempting to redirect focus.

Children with ASD are just as likely to request objects through gestures as children with TD. Parents are also just as likely to respond to the requests in a timely maner compared to parents of children with TD. Parental translation of the gestures had similarly psoitive effects in developing vocabulary. 

There are high levels of variation in this research with the behaviors of children with ASD, with aproximately 1/3 of children with ASD unable to show improvement due to being preverbal or nonverbal.

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