SynthesisJournal of autism and developmental disorders2020
Definitions of Nonverbal and Minimally Verbal in Research for Autism: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Synthesis in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 150 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining the Transition from Single Words to Phrase Speech in Children with ASD: A Systematic Review.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Studies assessing domains pertaining to structural language in autism vary in reporting practices and approaches to assessment: A systematic review.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Pooled it
- Feasibility and Tolerability of Daily Theta Burst Stimulation in Autistic Youth with Intellectual Disabilities and Minimally Speaking Status: A Pilot Double-Blind Randomized Sham-Controlled Trial.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Trial
- The Effect of Teaching Initiations on the Communication of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2022Trial
- Association between eye-tracking measures and Griffiths-III developmental scores at 18 months in healthy term-born children.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- On markers of linguistic impairment in autism and their implementation.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Expressive Vocabulary in Mandarin-Speaking Autistic, Developmentally Delayed, and Typically Developing Children: A Cross-sectional Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Psychological and Emotional Well-being of Autistic Individuals with an Immigrant Background: Exploring Strengths and Challenges Through a Mixed-methods Systematic Review.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Review
- Inequities in Preventive Care for Adults with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disability in the USA: A Narrative Review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Review
- Effects of I-Connect to Increase Communication Initiations of Elementary Students on the Autism Spectrum.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Play-Based Naturalistic Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Intervention: Educator Fidelity and Effects on Communication and Peer Interactions.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Developing a consensus research definition for profound autism using a modified Delphi method.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Early joint attention abilities measured by the ADOS-2 predict subsequent expressive language development in minimally verbal autistic children.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Examining the Utility of the W-ADL to Assess Daily Living Skills in Non- or Minimally Speaking Autistic Adults.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Autism and Communication Skills: Perspectives of Special Education Teachers in Saudi Arabia.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Brief Report: Quantifying Speech Production Coordination from Non- and Minimally-Speaking Individuals.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Sub-groups of spoken language and broader communication skills in a large heterogenous cohort of minimally verbal school-age children: evidence of discrepant profiles.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Beyond Mean Length of Utterance: Novel Measures for Characterizing the Spoken Language of Autistic Children.American journal of speech-language pathology · 2026Article
- Does baseline language ability predict response to early intervention for toddlers with early signs of autism? Evidence from a caregiver-mediated program.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Quantifying vocal subsystems of adults with minimally verbal autism spectrum disorder.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This systematic review examined definitions of "nonverbal" or "minimally verbal" and assessment measures used to evaluate communication in intervention studies focusing on improving expressive verbal communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We reviewed sample size, number of participants, participant age, and male/female representation. Our analysis yielded relatively few studies with non/minimally verbal children with ASD focusing on verbal expressive communication. Further, we found large inconsistencies in measures used, definitions of "nonverbal" and "minimally verbal", and ages targeted. Guidelines are suggested to create a more uniform assessment protocol with systematic descriptions of early communication learners as a foundational step for understanding the heterogeneity in this group and replicating research findings for this subgroup of children with ASD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.