Modified COSMIC 19
associated with higher expressive vocabulary counts and greater parent-reported adaptive
communication. Higher rates of M-COSMIC act for the function of Joint Attention were
associated with better scores on both the comprehension and expression subscales of the PLS, as
well as with expressive vocabulary count. Rates of M-COSMIC Initiations were positively
associated with almost all standardised language measures, such that more frequent initiators
tended to achieve higher language and communication scores (with the exception of teacher-
rated functional communication). Finally, associations regarding M-COSMIC Responses were
less robust, but present for parent- and teacher- reports of adaptive communication and parent
report of expressive vocabulary.
- Insert Table 5 -
5.5 Assessment of cross-contextual agreement
Paired samples t-tests were used to compare rates of different M-COSMIC codes across
the ACT and FP settings. Bonferroni correction applied to correct for multiple comparisons
resulted in the adoption of p ≤ .002 significance level. Figure 1 presents the mean rate-per-
minute of child communication acts toward the different possible partners; teacher, other adult,
peer, and the whole group. Across both sampled contexts, significantly more communication acts
were directed toward teachers (M = 3.58, SD = 1.72) than toward peers (M = 0.71, SD = .82), t
(40) = 10.10, p < .001. While significantly more communication acts were directed toward the
teacher during the ACT (M = 4.31, SD = 2.04) than during the FP (M = 3.23, SD = 1.79), t (40) =
5.22, p < .001, no such discrepancy was apparent for any of the other partners.
Figure 2 shows the mean rate-per-minute of the three M-COSMIC coded Roles (i.e.,
Initiations, Responses, and Non-Interactive behaviours) across the ACT and FP sessions.
Initiations occurred with similar frequency in the ACT and FP settings, t (40) = -1.63, p = .11 (M