Table 3.
Gesture frequency of caregivers caring for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) toddlers during different activities.
| Caregiver gestures types M (SD) | Play activity | Dining activity | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASD (n = 44) | TD (n = 29) | ASD (n = 34) | TD (n = 27) | |
| Total gestures | 24.14 (8.25) | 23.62 (8.13) | 11.44 (7.08) | 8.56 (3.88) |
| Communicative function | ||||
| Behavior regulation | 11.02 (5.11) | 11.79 (5.74) | 3.97 (3.16) | 4.04 (2.10) |
| Social interaction | 0.93 (1.28) | 0.93 (0.96) | 1.00 (1.54) | 0.85 (1.32) |
| Joint attention | 12.55 (5.51) | 11.34 (4.64) | 5.17 (4.99) | 4.00 (2.81) |
| Gesture-speech combination | ||||
| Reinforcing gestures | 7.48 (4.83) | 6.21 (3.79) | 4.09 (3.23) | 3.70 (3.23) |
| Disambiguating gestures | 5.55 (3.33) | 6.41 (3.77) | 1.76 (2.12) | 1.70 (1.35) |
| Supplementary gestures | 10.39 (4.38) | 9.66 (4.75) | 5.41 (3.82) | 2.78 (1.25)# |
| Gesture synchronization | ||||
| Synchronized gesture | 8.84 (5.38) | 14.14 (4.42)# | 6.29 (3.75) | 5.11 (3.47) |
| Unsynchronized gesture | 15.48 (6.86) | 9.73 (5.84)# | 5.41 (4.44) | 3.67 (2.47) |
Data are reported as group means with standard deviations in parentheses. #Adjusted p < 0.005.