Word-Learning Strategies of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Understanding of Referential Intent

As typically developing children begin to understand joint attention, they become avid word learners (Baldwin, 1991). In contrast, children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often struggle with joint attention and word learning (Baron-Cohen, Baldwin, & Crowson, 1997), although more linguistically advanced syntactic abilities are often intact (Tager-Flusberg et al, 1990). We sought to explore the roles of attention and social understanding in the abilities of children with and without ASD to map novel nouns to their intended referents. After their receptive vocabulary skills were assessed, children with ASD (ages 2 to 10) and matched controls were taught novel words while a speaker gazed at, or gazed at and pointed to, touched, or manipulated a referent object. Sessions were coded for word-mapping accuracy and children’s direction of gaze during teaching episodes. Controls of all ages, and ASD children over 6.5 years, mapped correctly in all four conditions, but ASD children 6.5 years and younger performed above chance only in conditions that included a manual gesture. Children with ASD looked at the experimenter less often during teaching episodes than controls, and time spent looking at the experimenter was predictive of word learning for all children. Looks to the target during teaching did not differ by group and were not predictive of performance. Knowledge of nouns, but not verbs, was predictive of performance for controls while knowledge of verbs, but not nouns, predicted performance in children with ASD. Results suggest not only a word-learning delay, but qualitatively different developmental trajectories, for children with autism spectrum disorders compared to typically developing children.Ph.D., Clinical Psychology -- Drexel University, 201