The
purpose of this research was to begin to characterize and compare the school
and home language environments of 10 preschool-aged children with Autism
Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Naturalistic language samples were collected from
each child, utilizing Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) digital voice
recorder technology, at 3-month intervals over the course of one year. LENA
software was used to identify 15-min segments of each sample that represented
the highest number of adult words used during interactions with each child
for all school and home language samples. Selected segments were transcribed
and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT). LENA
data was utilized to evaluate quantitative characteristics of the school and home
language environments and SALT data was utilized to evaluate quantitative and
qualitative characteristics of language environment. Results revealed many
similarities in home and school language environments including the degree of
semantic richness, and complexity of adult language, types of utterances, and
pragmatic functions of utterances used by adults during interactions with
child participants. Study implications and recommendations for future
research are discussed.
