The developing brain in a digital age – understanding the impact of shared book reading on language and brain development in autistic and neurotypical preschoolers
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Abstract
Research has shown that shared book reading (SBR) and “screen time” impact neurotypical (NT) children’s development in different ways. However, our current understanding of how these activities influence development in autistic children (ASD) is limited. This dissertation investigated the associations among SBR practices, language skills, and functional brain development in preschool-aged children (36-72 months old) with and without autism. Study 1 compared SBR practices in 16 NT and 16 autistic children. While we expected to observe more frequent and higher quality SBR interactions in NT children, groups did not differ on parent-reported quantity and quality of SBR interactions at home or measures of parent speech (linguistic volubility, lexical diversity/vocabulary, syntactic complexity, verbal dialogic reading strategies) during lab-based parent-child SBR interactions. As hypothesized, autistic children had lower engagement and enjoyment during SBR. Also, the quantity and quality of SBR interactions that autistic children experienced at home was positively associated with their language skills. Studies 2 and 3 used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure 28 NT and 20 autistic children’s brain response during a “live language” condition (experimenter-child SBR interaction) and “recorded language” condition (screen time). As hypothesized, right temporal parietal junction (TPJ) activation was greater during the live language condition than the recorded language condition in NT children only. Unexpectedly, autistic children showed greater right inferior and middle frontal gyrus (IMFG) activation than NT children during the recorded language condition. As hypothesized, left-lateralized activation during the live language condition was positively associated with SBR practices, although this association was found in NT children only. Additionally, left-lateralized activation during the recorded language condition was positively associated with language skills in autistic and NT children. In all, findings suggest that SBR plays an important role in language and brain development for preschool-aged children with and without autism. Findings provide a possible neurobiological explanation for why SBR and screen time have such different impacts on language development. Findings also provide insight into how environmental and neurobiological factors shape language development in autism.
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2024