Language and Speech in Autism: Annual Review of Linguistics

Language and Speech in Autism

Annual Review of Linguistics

Vol. 2: 413-425 (Volume publication date January 2016)

First published online as a Review in Advance on November 4, 2015

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030514-124824

Morton Ann Gernsbacher,¹ Emily M. Morson,² and Elizabeth J. Grace³

¹Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706; email: MAGernsb@wisc.edu

²Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405; email: emorson@umail.iu.edu

³Department of Special Education, National Louis University, Chicago, Illinois 60603; email: Elizabeth.Grace@nl.edu

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ABSTRACT

Autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical social interaction, interests or body movements, and communication. Our review examines the empirical status of three communication phenomena believed to be unique to autism: pronoun reversal (using the pronoun you when the pronoun I is intended, and vice versa), echolalia (repeating what someone has said), and a reduced or even reversed production-comprehension lag (a reduction or reversal of the well-established finding that speakers produce less sophisticated language than they can comprehend). Each of these three phenomena has been claimed to be unique to autism; therefore, each has been proposed to be diagnostic of autism, and each has been interpreted in autism-centric ways (psychoanalytic interpretations of pronoun reversal, behaviorist interpretations of echolalia, and clinical lore about the production-comprehension lag). However, as our review demonstrates, none of these three phenomena is in fact unique to autism; none can or should serve as diagnostic of autism, and all call into question unwarranted assumptions about autistic persons and their language development and use.

ADHD and ASD: Similar and difference "rich club" brain network hubs

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Saturday, March 7, 2015

6:40 PM

Brain Clock (temporal processing) disorder implicated in autism

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Dissertation Dish: Memory abilities in high functioning autism

Memory abilities in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders by Gansle, Mary Ann Thamaravelil, Ph.D., Texas Woman's University, 2009 , 112 pages; AAT 3367231

Abstract

In the present study, demographic and intellectual performance data previously collected on groups of children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high functioning autism (HFA) were analyzed. It was hypothesized that children and adolescents with HFA or AS would exhibit lower scores on measures of visual memory as compared to auditory memory. It was also hypothesized that participants would display lower scores on visual memory tasks that contain a social component as compared to visual memory tasks without a social component. It was also hypothesized that this group would have difficulty with the Memory for Faces task on the NEPSY as compared to other visual tasks. Another hypothesis stated that the Symbolic Memory task on the UNIT may yield lower mean scores when compared to the other visual tasks. Additionally, it was hypothesized that these children and adolescents would demonstrate lower mean scores on tasks involving auditory working memory as compared to auditory memory tasks alone. Instruments used included the NEPSY, the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT), and the Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities, Third Edition (WJ-III Cog).

Participants included child and adolescent volunteers (47 males and 7 females) ranging in age from 8 years to 17 years with a mean age of 11 years. All participants had a full scale IQ of 85 or above. Repeated measures ANOVAs were performed using diagnosis (HFA, AS) as a between subjects effect on the dependent variables. The results failed to reveal significant differences for diagnosis on any of the dependent measures; therefore, the between subjects factor diagnosis (HFA, AS) was collapsed across groups to create one sample of children with autism for subsequent analyses.

Repeated measures analysis of variance, pairwise multiple comparisons using Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD), and correlations were performed to analyze performance of the sample group across the various subtests included in the hypotheses. With regard to hypothesis one, results revealed that children's standardized mean responses on visual memory measures were not significantly different from each other. With respect to hypothesis two, scores on the Symbolic Memory Subtest were not significantly lower than other visual tasks.

Results for hypothesis three indicated the standardized mean scores on auditory measures and visual memory measures were not significantly different from each other. Hypothesis four analysis indicated that the standardized mean scores on the auditory memory measures and auditory working memory measures were not significantly different from each other. Overall, four hypotheses failed to show significance. There was some suggested overlap in skills measured by the various subtests. The implications of these results for the development of effective classroom interventions for use with students with AS or HFA were discussed.

Technorati Tags: psychology, school psychology, educational psychology, developmental psychology, developmenal disabilities, neuropsychology, autism, aspergers, autism spectrum disorders, Gsm, memory, disseration, dissertation dish, IQs Corner

Autism: Imprinted gene theory

http://the-mouse-trap.blogspot.com/2008/11/badcock-on-edge-imprinted-gene-theory.html

Sent from KMcGrew iPhone (IQMobile)

Random tidbits from mind blogosphere 5-13-08

• Are executive functions highly genetic? Check out post at Developing Intelligence for comments on a recent research study.
• Sharp Brains continues to impress above all the rest in documenting and explaining the brain fitness movement. Now they are offering a Brain Fitness Webinar Series. Kudos to SB.
• Self-serving blog plug. Check out post regarding recent genetic research suggestive of a link between autism and mental timing (the IQ Brain Clock)
  

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, intelligence, cognition, executive function, brain fitness, autism, mental timing, IQ Brain Clock

Genetics study links autism and brain clock

I just made a post re: interesting recent genetic research suggesting a link between Autism and mental timing (the IQ Brain Clock) at my other blog--The IQ Brain Clock.

DNA deletion linked to Autism

A news report of a new study, in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, suggesting a genetic link between a DNA deletion and autism.

Technorati Tags: autism, austic, intelligence, genetics, developmental disorders, educational psychology, school psychology, neuroscience, neuropsycology, special education

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Autism research bibliography

Over the past year there has been a steady increase in people who have contacted me to ask my opinion regarding CHC-based assessment of individuals with autism. I respond honestly ....saying that I have spent little time studying this specific developmental disability. Today I decided to run a search of my IAP Reference Database...to see what literature I might skim to "get up to speed." I was amazed at the number of references I had accumulated over the past few years (over 400). This is definitely a hot topic of contemporary research.

I've decided to make the result of my search available to others. Click here if you want to view/download/print a copy.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, education, special education, CHC theory, Cattell-Horn-Carroll, autism, aspergers

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Celendrical savants

A colleague of mine asked if I knew of any articles related to calendrical savants. I ran a quick search of the IAP Reference Database and located the following articles. I thought, given that I took the time to do the work, that I would share this information with nterested readers who may find if of value. Links to most of the articles are provided below (embedded in the article reference).





Cowan, R., & Carney, D. P. J. (2006). Calendrical savants: Exceptionality and practice. Cognition, 100(2), B1-B9.

Cowan, R., Stainthorp, R., Kapnogianni, S., & Anastasiou, M. (2004). The development of calendrical skills. Cognitive Development, 19(2), 169-178.

Bolte, S., & Poustka, F. (2004). Comparing the intelligence profiles of savant and nonsavant individuals with autistic disorder. Intelligence, 32, 121-131.

Cowan, R., OConnor, N., & Samella, K. (2003). The skills and methods of calendrical savants. Intelligence,31(1), 51-65.

Mottron, L., Dawson, M., Soulieres, I., Hubert, B., & Burack, J. (2006). Enhanced perceptual functioning in autism: An update, and eight principles of autistic perception. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 27-43.

Mottron, L., Lemmens, K., Gagnon, L., & Seron, X. (2006). Nonalgorithmic access to calendar information in a calendar calculator with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(2), 239-247.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, savants, calendrical savants, autism, autistic, quantitative, Gq, intelligence, cognition

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Random tidbits from the mind blogosphere 5-4-07

• New report that the drug depakote may be associated with cognitive deficits in children whose mothers took the drug while pregnant.
• New research report that young children with autism may have difficulty recognizing early words.
• How brains develop post at the ENL blog

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, cognitive, cognition, IQ, intelligence, autism, depakokte, epilepsy

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Autism and abnormal face processing

Interesting report at Science Dailey regarding new Yale study that reports on a possible relationship between autism and abnormal face processing

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, special education, school psychology, autism, autistic, face processing, Gv

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Austism, in my language-powerful video

Thanks to Mind Hacks for the link to the very powerful video apparently created by a young woman with autism...a video where she "translates" from her world of environmental interaction to the more "typical" world of speech and perception imposed upon her by the rest of the world. Very powerful.

Technorati Tags: psychology, education, special education, neuroscience, neuropsychology, autism, autistic, intelligence, cognition, perception

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Asperger's and executive functioning

I ran across an interesting small-sample (but well controlled with subject matching) study in the recent issue of Neuropsychologia re: possible impairments in executive processes/function (EF) in adults with Asperger's Syndrome. The article presents a nice summary (in table form) of prior matched-control studies that have examined the performance of individuals with Asperger's on many classic executive function measures (e.g., Wisconsin Cart Sort Test; Delis-Kaplan).

The most important finding from this study is the possibility that specific EF deficits (viz., response initiation and intentionality, in particular the ability to engage and disengage actions in the service of overarching goals),may be associated with Asperger's, but this may not have emerged in prior research that has used traditional EF measures. IN particular, the authors identify two less frequently used EF measures (Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome, BADS; Hayling Test) as being potentially important for clinicians to evaluate for possible diagnostic use.

• Hill, E. Bird, C. (2006) Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: Patterns of performance in a multiple case series Neuropsychologia,44, 2822–2835 (click here to view)
  

Abstract

• Mixed evidence exists for executive dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This may be because of the nature of the tasks used, the heterogeneity of participants, and difficulties with recruiting appropriate control groups. A comprehensive battery of ‘executive’ tests was administered to 22 individuals with Asperger syndrome and 22 well-matched controls. Performance was analysed both between groups and on an individual basis to identify outliers in both the ASD and control groups. There were no differences between the groups on all ‘classical’ tests of executive function. However, differences were found on newer tests of executive function. Specifically, deficits in planning, abstract problem solving and especially multitasking. On the tests that discriminated the groups, all of the ASD individuals except one were identified as significantly impaired (i.e. below the 5th percentile of the control mean) on at least one executive measure. This study provides evidence for significant executive dysfunction in Asperger syndrome. Greatest dysfunction appeared in response initiation and intentionality at the highest level—the ability to engage and disengage actions in the service of overarching goals. These deficits are best observed through using more recent, ecologically valid tests of executive dysfunction. Moreover, performance on these measures correlated with autistic symptomatology.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, Aspergers, autism, intelligence, IQ, executive system, executive function, Wisconsin Card Sort Test, WCST, Delis-Kaplan, BADS, Hayling test

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Random tidbits from the mind and brain blogsphere 11-11-06

• Scientific American has an article summarizing the recent buzz surround the theory that autism may be related to the functioning of mirror neurons.
• An interesting example of the use of Chernoff Faces, a visual-graphic method for presenting multivariate statistics (I've played with these but have never done anything formal with them), over at the Social Science Statistics Blog. The example uses major league baseball team statistics as the data. Interesting stuff.
• 20 Craziest scientific researches list over at 2spare.com.
• Nice post (Why do you turn down the readio when your'e lost?) regarding divided attention over at Sharp Brains.
  

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, autism, mirror neurons, neuroscience, Chernoff faces, statistics, Gv, research, divided attention, attention, cognitive, cognition, intelligence

Autism - special issue of Child Neuropsychology

A special issue of Child Neuropsychology has just been published that deals with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, education, special education, autism, autistic spectrum disorders, neuroscience, neuropsychology, developmental disorders

Random tidbits from the brain and mind blogsphere 10-24-06

• Science Daily has interesting news reports (from the world of research) that suggests the viral infections of the CNS can lead to memory deficits (click here), new DTI methods discover possible differences in brains of individuals with autism (click here) and the identification of a possible "memory gene" (click here)
  

Technorati Tags: psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, educational psychology, science, cognition, cognitive, intelligence, IQ, brain, neurology, autism, autistic, CNS, genetics

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NIMH launches new clinical trial research on autism

NIMH has just announced the launch of a new program of research on autism.

As abstracted from the press release:

• The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched three major clinical studies on autism at its research program on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. These studies are the first products of a new, integrated focus on autism generated in response to reported increases in autism prevalence and valid opportunities for progress. Initial studies will define the characteristics of different subtypes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and explore possible new treatments.

Click link above for more information

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, NIMH, autism, autistic spectrum disorders, developmental disorders, school psychology, special education

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