Certain patterns of conversation in children could identify early signs of autism, according to research

Researchers studied a number of children and found those using specific speech patterns when talking to adults, were displaying early signs of autism.  

Mainstream awareness of autism, ADHD and other associated conditions falling under the neurodiversity umbrella such as Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), is certainly growing. However, there's still a long way to go - particularly relating to waiting lists for diagnosis and communities adapting to be more inclusive.

Identifying neurodiversity early could certainly alleviate diagnosis later in life, particularly considering the sensory demands of parenting can disrupt the wellbeing of autistic mothers receiving a late diagnosis. It's therefore interesting to hear that research carried out by linguistics expert Vittorio Tantucci, found certain patterns of speech in young children can be early indicators of autism.

Writing in The Conversation, Vittorio suggests looking at a child's ability to apply 'resonance' to their speech directly links to a future diagnosis of autism. Resonance involves re-using the speech of others during a conversation. He uses the example of someone being asked "Have you had a nice weekend?" The simple response of "Yes" doesn't include resonance. 

A resonant response would be something similar to: "I had an exciting weekend actually, I went to Disneyland." This resonates with words in the original question such as "weekend" and "had", while creatively placing words to describe the experience such as replacing "nice" with "exciting."

Vittorio's research studied this form of imitation between children and their mothers, both in neurotypical children and those with an existing autism diagnosis. Neurotypical children were found to spontaneously re-use and re-formulate words spoken to them by their mothers, where neurodiverse children did not - they were more likely to repeat the same phrase used by their mother, without embellishing the sentence or re-using the words creatively.

Interestingly, Vittoria asserts that autistic people do have the ability to creatively express themselves, they just tend to do it in isolation and find it challenging during conversation. This busts some myths that autism impedes creativity altogether for those with autism, it's just rarely seen because they struggle to do it when others are around.

He believes his findings offer new awareness to parents, healthcare professionals and teachers, when identifying early signs of autism. The study could also help parents of children with an existing autism diagnosis understand why their child’s speech patterns look and sound different to others, and why their responses might sound different.

For more on neurodiversity, understanding the three types of ADHD can be hugely beneficial, and there are six upsides to ADHD parents need to know about. Parents with ADHD raising children with ADHD have their own challenges - we have expert tips for coping.