Sixty minimally verbal autistic children (mean age five years) were exposed to one of four language training conditions: speech alone, sign alone, or simultaneous or alternate presentation of speech and sign. Regardless of training condition, pretreatment verbal imitation ability positively predicted the size of child-initiated spoken vocabulary…

Sign language production of 14 low-functioning students (ages 9 to 20) with autistic disorder were examined. The location aspect of signs was produced more accurately by subjects than either the handshape or movement aspects. Wide individual differences were observed. Sign vocabulary size and accuracy was correlated with performance on two…