Characterizing Lexical Processing in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders

患有自闭症谱系障碍的幼儿的词汇处理特征

• 批准号: 8626851
• 负责人: JAN EDWARDS
• 金额: $ 55.32万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-01-10 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8626851
• 关键词: Accounting; Address; Adult; Affect; Autistic Disorder; Child; Childhood; Code; Cognitive; Communication; Comprehension; Cues; Development; Early Intervention; Evaluation; Exhibits; Eye; Eye Movements; Individual; Infant; Intervention; Knowledge; Language; Language Delays; Language Development; Language Disorders; Lead; Maps; Measures; Outcome; Parents; Pattern; Performance; Phenotype; Process; Production; Prognostic Marker; Public Health; Qualifying; Relative (related person); Reporting; Research; Research Design; Semantics; Series; Social Interaction; Specific qualifier value; Techniques; Testing; Time; Toddler; Visit; Vocabulary; Work; autism spectrum disorder; central coherence; cognitive function; comparison group; evidence base; experience; follow-up; gaze; knowledge base; language comprehension; language processing; lexical; lexical processing; peer; phonology; programs; public health relevance; research study; semantic processing; sex; skills; standardize measure

Abstract Language and communication deficits are one of the hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Language delay is often the first concern of parents, and early language abilities are predictive of broader outcomes for children on the autism spectrum. Recent studies have noted that comprehension is relatively more affected than production in young children with ASD, yet little research has focused on this aspect of early language functioning. Contemporary versions of the weak central coherence account suggest that autism is characterized by a cognitive style in which there is a bias towards local or low-level perceptual processing rather than global, integrative processing. This theoretical account yields specific hypotheses regarding early phonological and semantic processing which will be tested in this project. The proposed research will employ implicit eye-gaze paradigms developed to assess real-time comprehension (lexical representations) in typically developing infants and toddlers. A series of five studies are planned to address the following three specific aims: 1) to investigate the hypothesis that toddlers with ASD display a bias towards enhanced perceptual processing in lexical tasks compared to typically developing peers; 2) to examine the claim that toddlers with ASD exhibit poorer contextual integration on lexical tasks than typical controls; and 3) to determine whether early phonological and semantic processing abilities predict later language outcomes. A total of 150 toddlers will participate, 75 with ASD and 75 typically developing toddlers matched on parent-reported vocabulary comprehension and sex. A looking-while-listening paradigm will be used in Studies 1-4. Study 5 will involve a 1-year follow-up assessment to examine predictors of language outcomes as well as re-administration of one of the comprehension processing tasks. This research is significant in that it will provide a comprehensive characterization of early lexical processing in toddlers with ASD and provide the first systematic evaluation of whether the weak central coherence account can help explain the early comprehension deficits in this group. Findings will lead to better understanding of the autism phenotype(s) and have direct implications for developing early interventions.

抽象的 语言和沟通缺陷是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的标志之一。语言 延迟往往是父母首先关心的问题，早期的语言能力预示着更广泛的结果 自闭症谱系儿童。最近的研究表明，理解力受到的影响相对更大 比患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的幼儿的产出要多，但很少有研究关注早期语言的这一方面 发挥作用。弱中心一致性解释的当代版本表明自闭症的特征 通过一种认知风格，其中偏向局部或低水平的感知处理而不是全局， 一体化加工。这个理论解释产生了关于早期语音和语言的具体假设。 将在本项目中测试的语义处理。拟议的研究将采用隐式眼睛注视 开发范例来评估典型开发中的实时理解（词汇表示） 婴儿和幼儿。计划进行一系列五项研究，以实现以下三个具体目标：1） 研究这样一个假设：患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的幼儿表现出对增强知觉处理的偏见 与典型发展同龄人相比的词汇任务； 2）检验患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）幼儿表现出的说法 与典型控件相比，词汇任务的上下文集成较差； 3）确定是否提前 语音和语义处理能力可以预测以后的语言结果。共有 150 名幼儿 参与其中，75 名患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的孩子和 75 名正常发育的幼儿与家长报告的词汇相匹配 理解力和性。研究 1-4 将使用边看边听的范例。研究 5 将涉及 为期 1 年的后续评估，以检查语言结果的预测因素以及重新管理其中一项 理解处理任务。这项研究的意义重大，因为它将提供一个全面的 描述患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的幼儿早期词汇处理的特征，并提供第一个系统评估 较弱的中心一致性解释是否可以帮助解释该群体的早期理解缺陷。 研究结果将有助于更好地了解自闭症表型，并对 制定早期干预措施。