scholarly journals The use of prosody during syntactic processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 867-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua John Diehl ◽  
Carlyn Friedberg ◽  
Rhea Paul ◽  
Jesse Snedeker
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Adolescents With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

AbstractIn this study, we employed an eye-gaze paradigm to explore whether children (ages 8–12) and adolescents (ages 12–18) with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are able to use prosodic cues to determine the syntactic structure of an utterance. Persons with ASD were compared to typically developing (TD) peers matched on age, IQ, gender, and receptive language abilities. The stimuli were syntactically ambiguous but had a prosodic break that indicated the appropriate interpretation (feel the frog … with the feathervs.feel … the frog with the feather). We found that all groups were equally sensitive to the initial prosodic cues that were presented. Children and teens with ASD used prosody to interpret the ambiguous phrase as rapidly and efficiently as their TD peers. However, when a different cue was presented in subsequent trials, the younger ASD group was more likely to respond in a manner consistent with the initial prosodic cue rather than the new one. Eye-tracking data indicated that both younger groups (ASD and TD) had trouble shifting their interpretation as the prosodic cue changed, but the younger TD group was able to overcome this interference and produce an action consistent with the prosodic cue.

An exploration of the judgement of sexual situations by adolescents with autism spectrum disorders versus typically developing adolescents

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Visser ◽  
Kirstin Greaves-Lord ◽  
Nouchka T. Tick ◽  
Frank C. Verhulst ◽  
Athanasios Maras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Adolescents With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

scholarly journals Successful passive sentence comprehension among Danish adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 239694151876123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Jensen de López ◽  
Kristen Schroeder ◽  
Anna Gavarró
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Adolescents With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Passive Sentence ◽  
Nonverbal Reasoning

Background and aims Language abilities vary greatly across children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In the present study, we investigate passive sentence comprehension, which has been underexplored among individuals with autism spectrum disorders and found to be delayed among other clinical populations. This study is the first to assess grammatical comprehension among Danish-speaking adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Methods Fifteen Danish-speaking adolescents with autism (mean age: 14.9 years; age range: 13–18 years) participated in a picture selection task assessing comprehension of passive sentences relative to active sentences. We compared our findings for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders to those of 15 typically developing Danish-speaking adolescents matched for age and nonverbal reasoning as measured by the Matrix subtest of the WISC-IV/WAIS-IV. We also analyzed associations between passive comprehension and nonverbal reasoning. Results The results showed ceiling effects for both groups on all sentence types indicating that Danish adolescents with autism spectrum disorders do not face problems comprehending passive sentences. However, when considering variation within the autism spectrum disorder group, correct passive comprehension was highly significantly associated with nonverbal reasoning for the autism spectrum disorder group ( r = .75), while this was not the case for the typically developing adolescents. Analyses of the few errors produced showed a preference for Theta-role reversal errors in the autism spectrum disorder and the typically developing groups. Conclusions Danish-speaking adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders do not show impairment in passive sentence comprehension. Correlation analyses however show that for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, passive sentence comprehension is associated with nonverbal reasoning. We discuss how these results can be viewed as consistent with the few previous studies on passive comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Implications Our study provides additional cross-linguistic evidence that passive comprehension is not problematic for individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. The finding of the relationship between nonverbal reasoning and passive sentence comprehension may inform clinical best practices as children with autism spectrum disorders who underperform in measures of nonverbal reasoning may benefit from additional receptive language screening.

scholarly journals Sex-related patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 2190-2201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay A Olson ◽  
Lisa E Mash ◽  
Annika Linke ◽  
Christopher H Fong ◽  
Ralph-Axel Müller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Adolescents With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

Although a growing literature highlights sex differences in autism spectrum disorder clinical presentation, less is known about female variants at the neural level. We investigated sex-related patterns of functional connectivity within and between functional networks in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, compared to typically developing peers. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data for 141 children and adolescents (7–17 years) selected from an in-house sample and four sites contributing to the Autism Brain Imaging Database Exchange (ABIDE I and II) were submitted to group independent component analysis to generate resting-state functional networks. Functional connectivity was estimated by generating resting-state functional network correlation matrices, which were directly compared between males and females, and autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups. Results revealed greater connectivity within the default mode network in typically developing girls as compared to typically developing boys, while no such sex effect was observed in the autism spectrum disorder group. Correlational analyses with clinical indices revealed a negative relationship between sensorimotor connectivity and history of early autism symptoms in girls, but not in boys with autism spectrum disorder. A lack of neurotypical sex differentiation in default mode network functional connectivity observed in boys and girls with autism spectrum disorder suggests that sex-related differences in network integration may be altered in autism spectrum disorder. Lay summary We investigated whether children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders show sex-specific patterns of brain function (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) that are well documented in typically developing males and females. We found, unexpectedly, that boys and girls with autism do not differ in their brain functional connectivity, whereas typically developing boys and girls showed differences in a brain network involved in thinking about self and others (the default mode network). Results suggest that autism may be characterized by a lack of brain sex differentiation.

scholarly journals A deficit in using prosodic cues to understand communicative intentions by children with autism spectrum disorders: An eye-tracking study

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63
Author(s):  
Peng Zhou ◽  
Weiyi Ma ◽  
Likan Zhan
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

The present study investigated whether Mandarin-speaking preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were able to use prosodic cues to understand others’ communicative intentions. Using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, the study found that unlike typically developing (TD) 4-year-olds, both 4-year-olds with ASD and 5-year-olds with ASD exhibited an eye gaze pattern that reflected their inability to use prosodic cues to infer the intended meaning of the speaker. Their performance was relatively independent of their verbal IQ and mean length of utterance. In addition, the findings also show that there was no development in this ability from 4 years of age to 5 years of age. The findings indicate that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with ASD exhibit a deficit in using prosodic cues to understand the communicative intentions of the speaker, and this ability might be inherently impaired in ASD.

Disfluency Characteristics Observed in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Report

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura W. Plexico ◽  
Julie E. Cleary ◽  
Ashlynn McAlpine ◽  
Allison M. Plumb
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Developmental Stuttering

This descriptive study evaluates the speech disfluencies of 8 verbal children between 3 and 5 years of age with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Speech samples were collected for each child during standardized interactions. Percentage and types of disfluencies observed during speech samples are discussed. Although they did not have a clinical diagnosis of stuttering, all of the young children with ASD in this study produced disfluencies. In addition to stuttering-like disfluencies and other typical disfluencies, the children with ASD also produced atypical disfluencies, which usually are not observed in children with typically developing speech or developmental stuttering. (Yairi & Ambrose, 2005).

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