La comunicazione non verbale e il suo legame con i livelli di verbalità nei bambini autistici

This thesis investigated whether gesture and speech have similar developmental pathways and purpose in both neurodivergent (ND) and typically developing (TD) children. We did this by looking at whether the groups produced comparable multimodal behaviours. Ten ND and nine TD participants were observed in naturalistic child–adult interactions. Measures such as Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), Verbality Index, and frequency-based ratios were extracted from transcriptions, and were compared with gestural data coded in ELAN to assess patterns of multimodal communication. Although the TD sample was much younger on average, they demonstrated a clear and systematic link between verbal and gestural behaviours. Strong positive associations were found between MLU, Verbality Index, and initiatory gesture use, and TD participants showed consistent alignment between linguistic complexity and proactive, socially seeking non-verbal behaviours. In contrast, ND participants showed substantial heterogeneity, with weak or inconsistent trends that imply that non-verbal behaviour in ND individuals may also serve emotional or regulatory functions, or be more strongly influenced by environmental demands, rather than mapping directly onto linguistic sophistication. Thematic observations further suggested that TD children displayed more stable and synchronised gesture-speech patterns, with a broader repertoire of non-verbal behaviours. ND participants, by contrast, showed a narrower, more focused pattern centred on regulatory and referential actions, reflecting a stronger focus on internal behavioural goals and greater uncertainty around social timing and turn-taking. Together, these findings support the hypothesis that TD communication reflects a tightly integrated gesture-speech system, whereas ND communication appears more adaptive, individually driven, and environmentally shaped. This aligns with neurodiversity-affirming perspectives that frame ND communication not as deficient but as functional, meaningful, and shaped by differing cognitive and sensory profiles.