Are minimally verbal autistic children's modality and form of communication associated with parent responsivity?

Prior work examined how minimally verbal (MV) children with autism used their gestural communication during social interactions. However, interactions are exchanges between social partners. Examining parent–child social interactions is critically important given the influence of parent responsivity on children's communicative development. Specifically, parent responses that are semantically contingent to the child's communication plays an important role in further shaping children's language learning. This study examines whether MV autistic children's (N = 47; 48–95 months; 10 females) modality and form of communication are associated with parent responsivity during an in‐home parent–child interaction (PCI). The PCI was collected using natural language sampling methods and coded for child modality and form of communication and parent responses. Findings from Kruskal‐Wallis H tests revealed that there was no significant difference in parent semantically contingent responses based on child communication modality (spoken language, gesture, gesture‐speech combinations, and AAC) and form of communication (precise vs. imprecise). Findings highlight the importance of examining multiple modalities and forms of communication in MV children with autism to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their communication abilities; and underscore the inclusion of interactionist models of communication to examine children's input on parent responses in further shaping language learning experiences. Lay Summary Given the complexity of communication during interactions, we examined how minimally verbal (MV) autistic children's modality and form of communication may relate to how parents respond during an in‐home parent–child interaction. We found that parents responded in a semantically relevant way to their child's communication regardless of the child's type of modality and form of communication. Parents of MV children with autism are very in‐tune with their child's communication and play an important role in shaping their language learning.