Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518795392
Claire L Forrest, J. Gibson, S. Halligan, M. S. St Clair
Background and aim Individuals with developmental language disorder have been found to exhibit increased emotional difficulties compared to their typically developed peers. However, the underlying pathways involved in this relationship are unclear. It may be that poor language leads to social exclusion, resulting in feelings of frustration and isolation. Additionally, previous research has focused on clinical samples or early childhood in population cohorts. Therefore, the current paper examines the mediating effect of childhood peer problems on poor emotional outcomes in adolescence using a population cohort. Methods Data from the Millennium Cohort Study were analysed at ages 5, 7 and 14. The risk of developmental language disorder group (children considered at risk of developing developmental language disorder based on parental report of difficulties or a score −1.5 standard deviation on Naming Vocabulary subtest at age 5) was compared to a general population group. A Sobel–Goodman test was used to examine the mediating effect of teacher-reported peer problems at age 7 on the association between language difficulties at age 5 and parent-reported emotional problems at age 7 and 14. Results Peer problems at age 7 accounted for approximately 14% of the effect of language difficulties at age 5 on emotional problems at age 7, and approximately 17% of the effect of language difficulties at age 5 on emotional problems at age 14. Conclusions This paper supports previous findings that children and adolescents with language difficulties are at increased risk for social and emotional problems as reported by their parents and teachers. Furthermore, the findings show that peer problems partially mediate the relationship between language difficulties and emotional problems, suggesting that better relationships with peers may offer some protection against poor mental health outcomes in adolescents at risk of developmental language disorder. Implications This paper adds to the literature that investigates the mechanisms involved in the relationship between developmental language disorder and increased emotional problems. Practitioners wishing to reduce risk of emotional difficulties in children with developmental language disorder may wish to reflect on what they can do to support a child to develop positive peer relationships.
{"title":"A longitudinal analysis of early language difficulty and peer problems on later emotional difficulties in adolescence: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study","authors":"Claire L Forrest, J. Gibson, S. Halligan, M. S. St Clair","doi":"10.1177/2396941518795392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518795392","url":null,"abstract":"Background and aim Individuals with developmental language disorder have been found to exhibit increased emotional difficulties compared to their typically developed peers. However, the underlying pathways involved in this relationship are unclear. It may be that poor language leads to social exclusion, resulting in feelings of frustration and isolation. Additionally, previous research has focused on clinical samples or early childhood in population cohorts. Therefore, the current paper examines the mediating effect of childhood peer problems on poor emotional outcomes in adolescence using a population cohort. Methods Data from the Millennium Cohort Study were analysed at ages 5, 7 and 14. The risk of developmental language disorder group (children considered at risk of developing developmental language disorder based on parental report of difficulties or a score −1.5 standard deviation on Naming Vocabulary subtest at age 5) was compared to a general population group. A Sobel–Goodman test was used to examine the mediating effect of teacher-reported peer problems at age 7 on the association between language difficulties at age 5 and parent-reported emotional problems at age 7 and 14. Results Peer problems at age 7 accounted for approximately 14% of the effect of language difficulties at age 5 on emotional problems at age 7, and approximately 17% of the effect of language difficulties at age 5 on emotional problems at age 14. Conclusions This paper supports previous findings that children and adolescents with language difficulties are at increased risk for social and emotional problems as reported by their parents and teachers. Furthermore, the findings show that peer problems partially mediate the relationship between language difficulties and emotional problems, suggesting that better relationships with peers may offer some protection against poor mental health outcomes in adolescents at risk of developmental language disorder. Implications This paper adds to the literature that investigates the mechanisms involved in the relationship between developmental language disorder and increased emotional problems. Practitioners wishing to reduce risk of emotional difficulties in children with developmental language disorder may wish to reflect on what they can do to support a child to develop positive peer relationships.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518795392","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44666008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518794497
F. Sedgewick, V. Hill, E. Pellicano
Background and aims Young people’s parents often play a key role in facilitating friendships and have their own views on these friendships. Yet parents have rarely been asked to report on the friendships and peer relationships of their autistic children. This study therefore sought to examine parents’ perspectives on the friendships and social difficulties of their autistic daughters, and their views and concerns about their daughters’ futures. Methods Twenty parents of autistic adolescent girls, aged between 11 and 18 years, took part in semi-structured interviews on the topics of friendships, conflict and thoughts about adulthood and the future. Results Results demonstrated that parents often have significant involvement in their daughters’ social lives and friendships and have a range of views on these relationships. They highlighted both benefits and pitfalls of their daughters’ peer interactions, and the perceived negative influence of these interactions on their daughters’ mental health. Most parents had significant concerns about their daughters’ futures, either about their ability to live independently, or their potential vulnerability to exploitation. Despite these concerns around sexual relationships, some parents were avoiding raising the issue with their daughters. Conclusions Adolescent autistic girls often have positive, close friendships, but can also be the victims of bullying, with significant negative impacts on their mental health, at least according to their parents. Concerns about girls’ development into adulthood were commonplace, with parents taking a range of approaches to attempt to talk about the future with their daughters. Implications There is an urgent need for more open conversations to help autistic girls stay safe and secure as they mature, supporting their ability to understand and negotiate more intimate social relationships. Future research should examine these changing relationships as autistic girls’ transition to adulthood and should seek to combine the views of parents alongside the young people themselves.
{"title":"Parent perspectives on autistic girls’ friendships and futures","authors":"F. Sedgewick, V. Hill, E. Pellicano","doi":"10.1177/2396941518794497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518794497","url":null,"abstract":"Background and aims Young people’s parents often play a key role in facilitating friendships and have their own views on these friendships. Yet parents have rarely been asked to report on the friendships and peer relationships of their autistic children. This study therefore sought to examine parents’ perspectives on the friendships and social difficulties of their autistic daughters, and their views and concerns about their daughters’ futures. Methods Twenty parents of autistic adolescent girls, aged between 11 and 18 years, took part in semi-structured interviews on the topics of friendships, conflict and thoughts about adulthood and the future. Results Results demonstrated that parents often have significant involvement in their daughters’ social lives and friendships and have a range of views on these relationships. They highlighted both benefits and pitfalls of their daughters’ peer interactions, and the perceived negative influence of these interactions on their daughters’ mental health. Most parents had significant concerns about their daughters’ futures, either about their ability to live independently, or their potential vulnerability to exploitation. Despite these concerns around sexual relationships, some parents were avoiding raising the issue with their daughters. Conclusions Adolescent autistic girls often have positive, close friendships, but can also be the victims of bullying, with significant negative impacts on their mental health, at least according to their parents. Concerns about girls’ development into adulthood were commonplace, with parents taking a range of approaches to attempt to talk about the future with their daughters. Implications There is an urgent need for more open conversations to help autistic girls stay safe and secure as they mature, supporting their ability to understand and negotiate more intimate social relationships. Future research should examine these changing relationships as autistic girls’ transition to adulthood and should seek to combine the views of parents alongside the young people themselves.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518794497","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43660976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518787139
Monika Pudło, E. Pisuła
Background and aims The links between gestures and various attentional processes in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder have not been studied sufficiently. Previous studies have highlighted the impact of orienting attention on the efficacy of gestures without exploring the influence of alerting and top–down attentional processes. The aim of the present study was to explore the links between attentional processes and indicators of descriptive, conventional and emotional gestures as well as other aspects of nonverbal communication in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (N = 46). Methods The attention network test and colour trails test were used to measure attentional processes, whereas descriptive, conventional and emotional gestures were assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the autism diagnostic interview. Analysis showed a significant correlation between gestures with alerting, orienting and executive attention. Conclusions The relevant structural equation model revealed that attentional processes have an impact on gestures, but gestures do not have an impact on attentional processes. Emotional gestures are linked to alerting. Spatial-visual search was related to facial expression and the integration of nonverbal communication with behaviour. There was no significant interaction between executive attention and gestures. Implications The obtained results are discussed with reference both to gesture development and studies on attention in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.
{"title":"The relationship between gestures and non-verbal communication and attentional processing in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorder","authors":"Monika Pudło, E. Pisuła","doi":"10.1177/2396941518787139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518787139","url":null,"abstract":"Background and aims The links between gestures and various attentional processes in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder have not been studied sufficiently. Previous studies have highlighted the impact of orienting attention on the efficacy of gestures without exploring the influence of alerting and top–down attentional processes. The aim of the present study was to explore the links between attentional processes and indicators of descriptive, conventional and emotional gestures as well as other aspects of nonverbal communication in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (N = 46). Methods The attention network test and colour trails test were used to measure attentional processes, whereas descriptive, conventional and emotional gestures were assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the autism diagnostic interview. Analysis showed a significant correlation between gestures with alerting, orienting and executive attention. Conclusions The relevant structural equation model revealed that attentional processes have an impact on gestures, but gestures do not have an impact on attentional processes. Emotional gestures are linked to alerting. Spatial-visual search was related to facial expression and the integration of nonverbal communication with behaviour. There was no significant interaction between executive attention and gestures. Implications The obtained results are discussed with reference both to gesture development and studies on attention in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518787139","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48615760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518779939
M. Garraffa, Moreno I. Coco, H. Branigan
Background and aims Implicit learning mechanisms associated with detecting structural regularities have been proposed to underlie both the long-term acquisition of linguistic structure and a short-term tendency to repeat linguistic structure across sentences (structural priming) in typically developing children. Recent research has suggested that a deficit in such mechanisms may explain the inconsistent trajectory of language learning displayed by children with Developmental Learning Disorder. We used a structural priming paradigm to investigate whether a group of children with Developmental Learning Disorder showed impaired implicit learning of syntax (syntactic priming) following individual syntactic experiences, and the time course of any such effects. Methods Five- to six-year-old Italian-speaking children with Developmental Learning Disorder and typically developing age-matched and language-matched controls played a picture-description-matching game with an experimenter. The experimenter’s descriptions were systematically manipulated so that children were exposed to both active and passive structures, in a randomized order. We investigated whether children’s descriptions used the same abstract syntax (active or passive) as the experimenter had used on an immediately preceding turn (no-delay) or three turns earlier (delay). We further examined whether children’s syntactic production changed with increasing experience of passives within the experiment. Results Children with Developmental Learning Disorder’s syntactic production was influenced by the syntax of the experimenter’s descriptions in the same way as typically developing language-matched children, but showed a different pattern from typically developing age-matched children. Children with Developmental Learning Disorder were more likely to produce passive syntax immediately after hearing a passive sentence than an active sentence, but this tendency was smaller than in typically developing age-matched children. After two intervening sentences, children with Developmental Learning Disorder no longer showed a significant syntactic priming effect, whereas typically developing age-matched children did. None of the groups showed a significant effect of cumulative syntactic experience. Conclusions Children with Developmental Learning Disorder show a pattern of syntactic priming effects that is consistent with an impairment in implicit learning mechanisms that are associated with the detection and extraction of abstract structural regularities in linguistic input. Results suggest that this impairment involves reduced initial learning from each syntactic experience, rather than atypically rapid decay following intact initial learning. Implications Children with Developmental Learning Disorder may learn less from each linguistic experience than typically developing children, and so require more input to achieve the same learning outcome with respect to syntax. Structural priming is an effective
{"title":"Impaired implicit learning of syntactic structure in children with developmental language disorder: Evidence from syntactic priming","authors":"M. Garraffa, Moreno I. Coco, H. Branigan","doi":"10.1177/2396941518779939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518779939","url":null,"abstract":"Background and aims Implicit learning mechanisms associated with detecting structural regularities have been proposed to underlie both the long-term acquisition of linguistic structure and a short-term tendency to repeat linguistic structure across sentences (structural priming) in typically developing children. Recent research has suggested that a deficit in such mechanisms may explain the inconsistent trajectory of language learning displayed by children with Developmental Learning Disorder. We used a structural priming paradigm to investigate whether a group of children with Developmental Learning Disorder showed impaired implicit learning of syntax (syntactic priming) following individual syntactic experiences, and the time course of any such effects. Methods Five- to six-year-old Italian-speaking children with Developmental Learning Disorder and typically developing age-matched and language-matched controls played a picture-description-matching game with an experimenter. The experimenter’s descriptions were systematically manipulated so that children were exposed to both active and passive structures, in a randomized order. We investigated whether children’s descriptions used the same abstract syntax (active or passive) as the experimenter had used on an immediately preceding turn (no-delay) or three turns earlier (delay). We further examined whether children’s syntactic production changed with increasing experience of passives within the experiment. Results Children with Developmental Learning Disorder’s syntactic production was influenced by the syntax of the experimenter’s descriptions in the same way as typically developing language-matched children, but showed a different pattern from typically developing age-matched children. Children with Developmental Learning Disorder were more likely to produce passive syntax immediately after hearing a passive sentence than an active sentence, but this tendency was smaller than in typically developing age-matched children. After two intervening sentences, children with Developmental Learning Disorder no longer showed a significant syntactic priming effect, whereas typically developing age-matched children did. None of the groups showed a significant effect of cumulative syntactic experience. Conclusions Children with Developmental Learning Disorder show a pattern of syntactic priming effects that is consistent with an impairment in implicit learning mechanisms that are associated with the detection and extraction of abstract structural regularities in linguistic input. Results suggest that this impairment involves reduced initial learning from each syntactic experience, rather than atypically rapid decay following intact initial learning. Implications Children with Developmental Learning Disorder may learn less from each linguistic experience than typically developing children, and so require more input to achieve the same learning outcome with respect to syntax. Structural priming is an effective","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518779939","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65966122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-05-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518767610
Amanda Brignell, A. Morgan, S. Woolfenden, Felicity Klopper, T. May, Vanessa Sarkozy, Katrina Jane Williams
Background Language difficulties are common in autism spectrum disorder, yet little is known about the prognosis of language in children with autism spectrum disorder. The aim of this study was to systematically review studies reporting language outcomes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Method A comprehensive search strategy with a well-established sensitive prognosis filter for Medline, adapted for five other databases, was used. Included studies observed individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder for ≥12 months and had ≥30 participants. Risk of bias was assessed. Results Fifty-four studies (N = 5064) met inclusion criteria. Language outcomes were standardised assessments (n = 35), notation of presence/absence of verbal language (n = 11) or both (n = 8). Age at baseline ranged from 17 months to 26 years, duration of follow-up from 1 to 38 years. Most publications (92%) were rated medium to high risk of bias. In all but one study individuals had below-average scores at baseline and follow-up. However, in most (n = 24/25; 96%) studies reporting standard scores, individuals (aged ≤ 11 years at follow-up) progressed at a comparable rate to age-expected norms or demonstrated some ‘catch up’ over time. Meta-analyses found mean standard scores increased over time in three language domains (composite receptive language, composite expressive language and adaptive language). Nineteen to thirty percent of children aged five years and under gained verbal language. For children aged over five years 5–32% gained verbal language over the course of study. Age, baseline language scores, IQ and length of follow-up did not moderate between study differences in composite language or adaptive language growth or the acquisition of verbal language. Conclusion Despite variability in study methods, findings were consistent, with the majority of studies reporting children under 11 years on average progressed at a comparable rate to age-expected norms or with some ‘catchup’ over time. Implications This review provides synthesised information for families and clinicians on language development over time and on language outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Such information can be useful for prognostic counselling and may assist planning around future resources and support needs. This review also makes recommendations regarding methodology for future studies so that prognosis can become more fine-tuned at an individual level.
{"title":"A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prognosis of language outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder","authors":"Amanda Brignell, A. Morgan, S. Woolfenden, Felicity Klopper, T. May, Vanessa Sarkozy, Katrina Jane Williams","doi":"10.1177/2396941518767610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518767610","url":null,"abstract":"Background Language difficulties are common in autism spectrum disorder, yet little is known about the prognosis of language in children with autism spectrum disorder. The aim of this study was to systematically review studies reporting language outcomes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Method A comprehensive search strategy with a well-established sensitive prognosis filter for Medline, adapted for five other databases, was used. Included studies observed individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder for ≥12 months and had ≥30 participants. Risk of bias was assessed. Results Fifty-four studies (N = 5064) met inclusion criteria. Language outcomes were standardised assessments (n = 35), notation of presence/absence of verbal language (n = 11) or both (n = 8). Age at baseline ranged from 17 months to 26 years, duration of follow-up from 1 to 38 years. Most publications (92%) were rated medium to high risk of bias. In all but one study individuals had below-average scores at baseline and follow-up. However, in most (n = 24/25; 96%) studies reporting standard scores, individuals (aged ≤ 11 years at follow-up) progressed at a comparable rate to age-expected norms or demonstrated some ‘catch up’ over time. Meta-analyses found mean standard scores increased over time in three language domains (composite receptive language, composite expressive language and adaptive language). Nineteen to thirty percent of children aged five years and under gained verbal language. For children aged over five years 5–32% gained verbal language over the course of study. Age, baseline language scores, IQ and length of follow-up did not moderate between study differences in composite language or adaptive language growth or the acquisition of verbal language. Conclusion Despite variability in study methods, findings were consistent, with the majority of studies reporting children under 11 years on average progressed at a comparable rate to age-expected norms or with some ‘catchup’ over time. Implications This review provides synthesised information for families and clinicians on language development over time and on language outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Such information can be useful for prognostic counselling and may assist planning around future resources and support needs. This review also makes recommendations regarding methodology for future studies so that prognosis can become more fine-tuned at an individual level.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518767610","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42279271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518763166
Louise Malkin, K. Abbot-Smith, David M Williams
Background and aims Pragmatic language is a key difficulty in autism spectrum disorder. One such pragmatic skill is verbal reference, which allows the current entity of shared interest between speakers to be identified and thus enables fluid conversation. The aim of this review was to determine the extent to which studies have found that verbal reference is impaired in autism spectrum disorder. We organise the review in terms of the methodology used and the modality (production versus comprehension) in which proficiency with verbal reference was assessed. Evidence for the potential cognitive underpinnings of these skills is also reviewed. Main contribution and methods To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of verbal reference in autism spectrum disorder. PsychINFO and Web of Science were systematically screened using the combination of search terms outlined in this paper. Twenty-four studies met our inclusion criteria. Twenty-two of these examined production, whereby the methodology ranged from elicited conversation through to elicited narrative, the ‘director’ task and other referential communication paradigms. Three studies examined reference interpretation. (One study investigated both production and appropriacy judgement). Four studies examined the relationship between appropriate usage of verbal reference and formal language (lexico-syntactic ability). Two studies investigated whether reference production related to Theory of Mind or Executive Functioning. Conclusion and implications Across a range of elicited production tasks, the predominant finding was that children and adults with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate a deficit in the production of appropriate verbal reference in comparison not only to typically developing groups, but also to groups with Developmental Language Disorder or Down syndrome. In contrast, the studies of reference interpretation which compared performance to typical control groups all found no between-group differences in this regard. To understand this cross-modality discrepancy, we need studies with the same sample of individuals, whereby the task requirements for comprehension and production are as closely matched as possible. The field also requires the development of experimental manipulations which allow us to pinpoint precisely if and how each comprehension and/or production task requires mentalising and/or various components of executive functioning. Only through such detailed and controlled experimental work would it be possible to determine the precise location of impairments in verbal reference in autism spectrum disorder. A better understanding of this would contribute to the development of interventions.
背景与目的语用语言是自闭症谱系障碍的关键难点。其中一种实用技巧是言语参照，它可以识别说话者之间当前共同感兴趣的实体，从而实现流畅的对话。本综述的目的是确定研究发现自闭症谱系障碍患者的言语参照能力受损的程度。我们根据使用的方法和模式(生产与理解)来组织审查，其中评估了口头参考的熟练程度。这些技能的潜在认知基础的证据也进行了审查。主要贡献与方法据我们所知，这是第一次对自闭症谱系障碍的言语参考进行系统综述。使用本文列出的搜索词组合对PsychINFO和Web of Science进行系统筛选。24项研究符合我们的纳入标准。其中22个研究了生产，方法包括从引出的对话到引出的叙述，“导演”任务和其他参考沟通范例。三项研究考察了参考文献解释。(一项研究调查了生产和适当性判断)。四项研究考察了言语指称的恰当使用与形式语言(词汇句法能力)的关系。两项研究调查了参考产生是否与心理理论或执行功能有关。结论和启示在一系列的诱导生产任务中，主要的发现是自闭症谱系障碍的儿童和成人在生产适当的言语参考方面表现出缺陷，不仅与正常发育的群体相比，而且与发展性语言障碍或唐氏综合症的群体相比。相比之下，参考解释的研究将表现与典型对照组进行比较，都没有发现这方面的组间差异。为了理解这种跨模态差异，我们需要对相同的个体样本进行研究，从而使理解和产生的任务要求尽可能紧密匹配。该领域还需要实验操作的发展，使我们能够准确地指出每个理解和/或生产任务是否以及如何需要心智化和/或执行功能的各个组成部分。只有通过这种详细的、可控的实验工作，才有可能确定自闭症谱系障碍中言语参照障碍的精确位置。更好地了解这一点将有助于制定干预措施。
{"title":"Is verbal reference impaired in autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review","authors":"Louise Malkin, K. Abbot-Smith, David M Williams","doi":"10.1177/2396941518763166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518763166","url":null,"abstract":"Background and aims Pragmatic language is a key difficulty in autism spectrum disorder. One such pragmatic skill is verbal reference, which allows the current entity of shared interest between speakers to be identified and thus enables fluid conversation. The aim of this review was to determine the extent to which studies have found that verbal reference is impaired in autism spectrum disorder. We organise the review in terms of the methodology used and the modality (production versus comprehension) in which proficiency with verbal reference was assessed. Evidence for the potential cognitive underpinnings of these skills is also reviewed. Main contribution and methods To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of verbal reference in autism spectrum disorder. PsychINFO and Web of Science were systematically screened using the combination of search terms outlined in this paper. Twenty-four studies met our inclusion criteria. Twenty-two of these examined production, whereby the methodology ranged from elicited conversation through to elicited narrative, the ‘director’ task and other referential communication paradigms. Three studies examined reference interpretation. (One study investigated both production and appropriacy judgement). Four studies examined the relationship between appropriate usage of verbal reference and formal language (lexico-syntactic ability). Two studies investigated whether reference production related to Theory of Mind or Executive Functioning. Conclusion and implications Across a range of elicited production tasks, the predominant finding was that children and adults with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate a deficit in the production of appropriate verbal reference in comparison not only to typically developing groups, but also to groups with Developmental Language Disorder or Down syndrome. In contrast, the studies of reference interpretation which compared performance to typical control groups all found no between-group differences in this regard. To understand this cross-modality discrepancy, we need studies with the same sample of individuals, whereby the task requirements for comprehension and production are as closely matched as possible. The field also requires the development of experimental manipulations which allow us to pinpoint precisely if and how each comprehension and/or production task requires mentalising and/or various components of executive functioning. Only through such detailed and controlled experimental work would it be possible to determine the precise location of impairments in verbal reference in autism spectrum disorder. A better understanding of this would contribute to the development of interventions.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518763166","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44691837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518764527
S. Dahlgren, A. D. Sandberg, Sofia Strömbergsson, Lena Wenhov, M. Råstam, U. Nettelbladt
Background Autism spectrum disorder has been associated with atypical voice characteristics and prosody. In the scientific literature, four different aspects of atypical speech production in autism spectrum disorder have been highlighted; voice quality together with the prosodic aspects pitch, duration and intensity. Studies of prosody in autism spectrum disorder have almost exclusively used perceptual methods. Recently, some studies have used acoustic analyses. In these studies, it has been pointed out that the acoustic differences found are not necessarily perceived as atypical by listeners, which is why it is important to let listeners evaluate perceptual correlates to acoustic findings. The aims of this study were to use both perceptual and acoustic analyses to study prosodic production in children with autism spectrum disorder and to examine if voice and speech characteristics could be used as clinical markers for autism spectrum disorder. Method Eleven children within normal range of intelligence diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and 11 children with typical development participated. Every child was recorded telling a story elicited with the expression, reception and recall of narrative instrument. Excerpts of one minute were extracted from the audio files creating the material underlying the perceptual ratings and in the acoustic analysis. An evaluation procedure, partly based on a standardized voice evaluation procedure developed for clinical practice in Sweden, was designed for the perceptual judgments and analysis. To capture critical prosodic variables, aspects of prosody based on characteristic features of Swedish prosody, prosodic features known to cause Swedish children with language impairment particular problems and current research of prosodic impairments in children with autism, were used as rating variables. The acoustic analysis was based on the four variables fundamental frequency (fo) average, fo range, fo variation and speech rate, together with the language production-related variable number of words per utterance. Results In the acoustic analysis, no differences were found with regards to fo-related variables or speech rate. However, the children in the autism spectrum disorder-group produced significantly more words per utterance than the typically developing children. The perceptual analysis showed no differences between the groups. Only three children with autism spectrum disorder were correctly identified as such. The narrative ability of these children, according to scores on the narrative assessment profile, was poorer than that of the other eight children. They were also more atypical in fluency and in speech rate. Given the small sample, the results should be interpreted with caution. Conclusions and implications The only difference in prosodic production discovered in the acoustic analysis, namely that children with autism spectrum disorder used more words per utterance than the children in the comparison g
{"title":"Prosodic traits in speech produced by children with autism spectrum disorders – Perceptual and acoustic measurements","authors":"S. Dahlgren, A. D. Sandberg, Sofia Strömbergsson, Lena Wenhov, M. Råstam, U. Nettelbladt","doi":"10.1177/2396941518764527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518764527","url":null,"abstract":"Background Autism spectrum disorder has been associated with atypical voice characteristics and prosody. In the scientific literature, four different aspects of atypical speech production in autism spectrum disorder have been highlighted; voice quality together with the prosodic aspects pitch, duration and intensity. Studies of prosody in autism spectrum disorder have almost exclusively used perceptual methods. Recently, some studies have used acoustic analyses. In these studies, it has been pointed out that the acoustic differences found are not necessarily perceived as atypical by listeners, which is why it is important to let listeners evaluate perceptual correlates to acoustic findings. The aims of this study were to use both perceptual and acoustic analyses to study prosodic production in children with autism spectrum disorder and to examine if voice and speech characteristics could be used as clinical markers for autism spectrum disorder. Method Eleven children within normal range of intelligence diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and 11 children with typical development participated. Every child was recorded telling a story elicited with the expression, reception and recall of narrative instrument. Excerpts of one minute were extracted from the audio files creating the material underlying the perceptual ratings and in the acoustic analysis. An evaluation procedure, partly based on a standardized voice evaluation procedure developed for clinical practice in Sweden, was designed for the perceptual judgments and analysis. To capture critical prosodic variables, aspects of prosody based on characteristic features of Swedish prosody, prosodic features known to cause Swedish children with language impairment particular problems and current research of prosodic impairments in children with autism, were used as rating variables. The acoustic analysis was based on the four variables fundamental frequency (fo) average, fo range, fo variation and speech rate, together with the language production-related variable number of words per utterance. Results In the acoustic analysis, no differences were found with regards to fo-related variables or speech rate. However, the children in the autism spectrum disorder-group produced significantly more words per utterance than the typically developing children. The perceptual analysis showed no differences between the groups. Only three children with autism spectrum disorder were correctly identified as such. The narrative ability of these children, according to scores on the narrative assessment profile, was poorer than that of the other eight children. They were also more atypical in fluency and in speech rate. Given the small sample, the results should be interpreted with caution. Conclusions and implications The only difference in prosodic production discovered in the acoustic analysis, namely that children with autism spectrum disorder used more words per utterance than the children in the comparison g","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518764527","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43401477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518761239
K. M. Jensen de López, Kristen Schroeder, A. Gavarró
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.
{"title":"Successful passive sentence comprehension among Danish adolescents with autism spectrum disorders","authors":"K. M. Jensen de López, Kristen Schroeder, A. Gavarró","doi":"10.1177/2396941518761239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518761239","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518761239","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49126163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941518764764
Abigail D. Delehanty, Sheri Stronach, W. Guthrie, E. Slate, A. Wetherby
Background and Aims Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit a heterogeneous clinical phenotype with wide variability in their language and intellectual profiles that complicates efforts at early detection. There is limited research examining observational measures to characterize differences between young children with and without ASD and co-occurring language delay (LD) and global developmental delay (GDD). The first aim of this study was to compare early social communication measured in the second year of life in children diagnosed at age 3 with ASD, developmental delays (DD), and typical development (TD). The second aim was to compare early social communication in six subgroups of children: ASD, ASD+LD, ASD+GDD, LD, GDD, and TD. Our third aim was to determine the collective and unique contributions of early social communication to predict verbal and nonverbal developmental outcomes at three years of age for children with and without ASD. Methods Analyses of covariance controlling for maternal education were employed to examine group differences in social communication in 431 toddlers recruited through screening in primary care. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate associations between the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) Behavior Sample composite standard scores and Mullen Scales of Early Learning T scores for children with and without ASD. Results Distinct patterns of early social communication were evident by 20 months. Children with TD differed significantly from children with ASD and DD on all three CSBS Behavior Sample composites. Children with ASD had significantly lower scores than those with DD and TD on the social and symbolic composites. Among the six subgroups, all three composites of the CSBS Behavior Sample differentiated children with TD from all other subgroups. Children with ASD+GDD scored significantly lower than all other subgroups on social and symbolic composites. Patterns of social communication emerged for children with and without ASD, which held among subgroups divided by developmental level. The CSBS Behavior Sample social and symbolic composites contributed unique variance in predicting developmental outcomes in both groups. The speech composite contributed unique variance to expressive language, receptive language, and visual reception in children without ASD, and contributed uniquely to expressive language only for children with ASD. Conclusions The CSBS Behavior Sample, an observational measure for children aged 12–24 months, detected social communication delays and explained a significant amount of variance in verbal and nonverbal outcomes a year later in this large sample of young children grouped by ASD diagnosis and developmental level. Implications In light of the continued search for early predictors of ASD and developmental delay, our findings underscore the importance of monitoring early social communication skills, including the expression of emotions
{"title":"Verbal and nonverbal outcomes of toddlers with and without autism spectrum disorder, language delay, and global developmental delay","authors":"Abigail D. Delehanty, Sheri Stronach, W. Guthrie, E. Slate, A. Wetherby","doi":"10.1177/2396941518764764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941518764764","url":null,"abstract":"Background and Aims Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit a heterogeneous clinical phenotype with wide variability in their language and intellectual profiles that complicates efforts at early detection. There is limited research examining observational measures to characterize differences between young children with and without ASD and co-occurring language delay (LD) and global developmental delay (GDD). The first aim of this study was to compare early social communication measured in the second year of life in children diagnosed at age 3 with ASD, developmental delays (DD), and typical development (TD). The second aim was to compare early social communication in six subgroups of children: ASD, ASD+LD, ASD+GDD, LD, GDD, and TD. Our third aim was to determine the collective and unique contributions of early social communication to predict verbal and nonverbal developmental outcomes at three years of age for children with and without ASD. Methods Analyses of covariance controlling for maternal education were employed to examine group differences in social communication in 431 toddlers recruited through screening in primary care. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate associations between the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) Behavior Sample composite standard scores and Mullen Scales of Early Learning T scores for children with and without ASD. Results Distinct patterns of early social communication were evident by 20 months. Children with TD differed significantly from children with ASD and DD on all three CSBS Behavior Sample composites. Children with ASD had significantly lower scores than those with DD and TD on the social and symbolic composites. Among the six subgroups, all three composites of the CSBS Behavior Sample differentiated children with TD from all other subgroups. Children with ASD+GDD scored significantly lower than all other subgroups on social and symbolic composites. Patterns of social communication emerged for children with and without ASD, which held among subgroups divided by developmental level. The CSBS Behavior Sample social and symbolic composites contributed unique variance in predicting developmental outcomes in both groups. The speech composite contributed unique variance to expressive language, receptive language, and visual reception in children without ASD, and contributed uniquely to expressive language only for children with ASD. Conclusions The CSBS Behavior Sample, an observational measure for children aged 12–24 months, detected social communication delays and explained a significant amount of variance in verbal and nonverbal outcomes a year later in this large sample of young children grouped by ASD diagnosis and developmental level. Implications In light of the continued search for early predictors of ASD and developmental delay, our findings underscore the importance of monitoring early social communication skills, including the expression of emotions","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941518764764","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48606778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-02-01DOI: 10.1177/2396941517742078
J. Boucher, S. Anns
Background and aims The ‘dual-systems’ model of language acquisition has been used by Ullman et al. to explain patterns of strength and weakness in the language of higher-functioning people with autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, intact declarative/explicit learning is argued to compensate for a deficit in non-declarative/implicit procedural learning, constituting an example of the so-called see-saw effect. Ullman and Pullman extended their argument concerning a see-saw effect on language in autism spectrum disorder to cover other perceived anomalies of behaviour, including impaired acquisition of social skills. The aim of this paper is to present a critique of Ullman et al.’s claims and to propose an alternative model of links between memory systems and language in autism spectrum disorder. Main contribution We argue that a four-system model of learning, in which intact semantic and procedural memory are used to compensate for weaknesses in episodic memory and perceptual learning, can better explain patterns of language ability across the autistic spectrum. We also argue that attempts to generalise the ‘impaired implicit learning/spared declarative learning’ theory to other behaviours in autism spectrum disorder are unsustainable. Conclusions Clinically significant language impairments in autism spectrum disorder are under-researched, despite their impact on everyday functioning and quality of life. The relative paucity of research findings in this area lays it open to speculative interpretation which may be misleading. Implications More research is needed into links between memory/learning systems and language impairments across the spectrum. Improved understanding should inform therapeutic intervention and contribute to investigation of the causes of language impairment in autism spectrum disorder with potential implications for prevention.
{"title":"Memory, learning and language in autism spectrum disorder","authors":"J. Boucher, S. Anns","doi":"10.1177/2396941517742078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2396941517742078","url":null,"abstract":"Background and aims The ‘dual-systems’ model of language acquisition has been used by Ullman et al. to explain patterns of strength and weakness in the language of higher-functioning people with autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, intact declarative/explicit learning is argued to compensate for a deficit in non-declarative/implicit procedural learning, constituting an example of the so-called see-saw effect. Ullman and Pullman extended their argument concerning a see-saw effect on language in autism spectrum disorder to cover other perceived anomalies of behaviour, including impaired acquisition of social skills. The aim of this paper is to present a critique of Ullman et al.’s claims and to propose an alternative model of links between memory systems and language in autism spectrum disorder. Main contribution We argue that a four-system model of learning, in which intact semantic and procedural memory are used to compensate for weaknesses in episodic memory and perceptual learning, can better explain patterns of language ability across the autistic spectrum. We also argue that attempts to generalise the ‘impaired implicit learning/spared declarative learning’ theory to other behaviours in autism spectrum disorder are unsustainable. Conclusions Clinically significant language impairments in autism spectrum disorder are under-researched, despite their impact on everyday functioning and quality of life. The relative paucity of research findings in this area lays it open to speculative interpretation which may be misleading. Implications More research is needed into links between memory/learning systems and language impairments across the spectrum. Improved understanding should inform therapeutic intervention and contribute to investigation of the causes of language impairment in autism spectrum disorder with potential implications for prevention.","PeriodicalId":36716,"journal":{"name":"Autism and Developmental Language Impairments","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2396941517742078","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65965105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：