Sex differences in the temporal dynamics of autistic children's natural conversations.

IF 6.3 1区 医学 Q1 GENETICS & HEREDITY Molecular Autism Pub Date : 2023-04-06 DOI:10.1186/s13229-023-00545-6
Sunghye Cho, Meredith Cola, Azia Knox, Maggie Rose Pelella, Alison Russell, Aili Hauptmann, Maxine Covello, Christopher Cieri, Mark Liberman, Robert T Schultz, Julia Parish-Morris
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Abstract

Background: Autistic girls are underdiagnosed compared to autistic boys, even when they experience similar clinical impact. Research suggests that girls present with distinct symptom profiles across a variety of domains, such as language, which may contribute to their underdiagnosis. In this study, we examine sex differences in the temporal dynamics of natural conversations between naïve adult confederates and school-aged children with or without autism, with the goal of improving our understanding of conversational behavior in autistic girls and ultimately improving identification.

Methods: Forty-five school-aged children with autism (29 boys and 16 girls) and 47 non-autistic/neurotypical (NT) children (23 boys and 24 girls) engaged in a 5-min "get-to-know-you" conversation with a young adult confederate that was unaware of children's diagnostic status. Groups were matched on IQ estimates. Recordings were time-aligned and orthographically transcribed by trained annotators. Several speech and pause measures were calculated. Groups were compared using analysis of covariance models, controlling for age.

Results: Autistic girls used significantly more words than autistic boys, and produced longer speech segments than all other groups. Autistic boys spoke more slowly than NT children, whereas autistic girls did not differ from NT children in total word counts or speaking rate. Autistic boys interrupted confederates' speech less often and produced longer between-turn pauses (i.e., responded more slowly when it was their turn) compared to other children. Within-turn pause duration did not differ by group.

Limitations: Our sample included verbally fluent children and adolescents aged 6-15 years, so our study results may not replicate in samples of younger children, adults, and individuals who are not verbally fluent. The results of this relatively small study, while compelling, should be interpreted with caution and replicated in a larger sample.

Conclusion: This study investigated the temporal dynamics of everyday conversations and demonstrated that autistic girls and boys have distinct natural language profiles. Specifying differences in verbal communication lays the groundwork for the development of sensitive screening and diagnostic tools to more accurately identify autistic girls, and could inform future personalized interventions that improve short- and long-term social communication outcomes for all autistic children.

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自闭症儿童自然对话时间动态的性别差异。
背景:与自闭症男孩相比,自闭症女孩的诊断率较低,即使她们受到的临床影响相似。研究表明,女孩在语言等多个领域表现出不同的症状特征,这可能是导致她们被低估的原因之一。在本研究中,我们研究了天真无邪的成人同伴与患有或未患有自闭症的学龄儿童之间自然对话的时间动态性别差异,目的是加深我们对自闭症女孩对话行为的理解,并最终提高识别能力:方法:45 名学龄自闭症儿童(29 名男孩和 16 名女孩)和 47 名非自闭症/神经症(NT)儿童(23 名男孩和 24 名女孩)与一名不了解儿童诊断状况的年轻成人同伴进行了 5 分钟的 "认识你 "对话。两组儿童的智商估计值相匹配。录音由训练有素的注释员进行时间对齐和正字法转录。计算了几种语音和停顿测量值。使用协方差分析模型对各组进行比较,同时控制年龄:结果:自闭症女孩的用词量明显多于自闭症男孩,所产生的语音片段也长于所有其他群体。自闭症男孩的语速比正常儿童慢,而自闭症女孩在总字数和语速上与正常儿童没有差异。与其他儿童相比,自闭症男孩打断同伴说话的次数较少,轮次间停顿的时间较长(即轮到自己时反应较慢)。不同组别在回合内的停顿时间没有差异:我们的样本包括语言流利的 6-15 岁儿童和青少年,因此我们的研究结果可能无法复制到年龄更小的儿童、成人和语言不流利的人的样本中。这项规模相对较小的研究结果虽然令人信服,但在解释时应谨慎,并应在更大的样本中重复:本研究调查了日常对话的时间动态,证明自闭症女孩和男孩具有不同的自然语言特征。明确语言交流的差异为开发敏感的筛查和诊断工具奠定了基础,从而更准确地识别自闭症女孩,并为未来的个性化干预措施提供依据,以改善所有自闭症儿童的短期和长期社会交流结果。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Molecular Autism
Molecular Autism GENETICS & HEREDITY-NEUROSCIENCES
CiteScore
12.10
自引率
1.60%
发文量
44
审稿时长
17 weeks
期刊介绍: Molecular Autism is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes high-quality basic, translational and clinical research that has relevance to the etiology, pathobiology, or treatment of autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. Research that includes integration across levels is encouraged. Molecular Autism publishes empirical studies, reviews, and brief communications.
期刊最新文献
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