Table 1.

Putative predictors of language and their empirical and theoretical support

Putative predictor	Example studies finding associations with language in children with ASD	Theories justifying selection of predictor
Attention during child-directed speech	Campbell et al. (2014), Paul et al. (2007), Watson et al. (2010)	Cognitive, social, transactional
Responding to others’ bid for joint attention	Paul et al. (2008), Siller and Sigman (2008), Thurm et al. (2007), Wetherby et al. (2007)	Cognitive, social, transactional
Early receptive language	Luyster et al. (2007), Paul et al. (2008), Thurm et al. (2007)	Cognitive
Intentional communication	Charman et al. (2005), Plumb and Wetherby (2013), Yoder (2006)	Cognitive, social
Motor imitation	Gernsbacher et al. (2008), Poon et al. (2012), Stone and Yoder (2001), Thurm et al. (2007), Toth et al. (2006)	Motor, cognitive, social
Parent linguistic responses to child leads	Haebig et al. (2013), McDuffie and Yoder (2010), Perryman et al. (2013), Siller and Sigman (2002, 2008)	Transactional
Nonimitative oral motor functioning	Amato and Slavin (1998), Belmonte et al. (2013), Gernsbacher et al. (2008)	Motor
Early consonant inventory	Paul et al. (2008), Wetherby et al. (2007)	Social, motor
Object play	Poon et al. (2012), Toth et al. (2006), Wetherby et al. (2007), Yoder (2006)	Cognitive, social, motor