Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children
Moffitt, Ahn, Custode, Tao, Mathew, Parlade, Hale, Durocher, Alessandri, Perry, Messinger
Assessment
of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relies on expert clinician observation and
judgment, but objective measurement tools have the potential to provide
additional information on ASD symptom severity. Diagnostic evaluations for
ASD typically include the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS-2), a
semi-structured assessment composed of a series of social presses. The
current study examined associations between concurrent objective features of
child vocalizations during the ADOS-2 and examiner-rated autism symptom
severity. The sample included 66 children (49 male; M = 40 months, SD =
10.58) evaluated in a university-based clinic, 61 of whom received an ASD
diagnosis. Research reliable administration of the ADOS-2 provided social
affect (SA) and restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) calibrated severity
scores (CSS). Audio was recorded from examiner-worn eyeglasses during the
ADOS-2 and child and adult speech were differentiated with LENA SP Hub. PRAAT
was used to ascertain acoustic features of the audio signal, specifically the
mean fundamental vocal frequency (F0) of LENA identified child speech-like
vocalizations (those with phonemic content), child cry vocalizations, and
adult speech. Sphinx-4 was employed to estimate child and adult phonological
features indexed by the average consonant and vowel count per vocalization.
More than a quarter of the variance in ADOS-2 RRB CSS was predicted by the
combination of child phoneme count per vocalization and child vocalization
F0. Findings indicate that both acoustic and phonological features of child
vocalizations are associated with expert clinician ratings of autism symptom
severity.