Word Learning in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in research in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). One area in particular which remains ambiguous is why some individuals with ASD show severe language delay and/or impairment while others develop fluent language with little or no delay. The present investigation addressed the process of learning new words in order to explore possible mechanisms of language delay and impairment. The final sample included 21 toddlers with typical development, who were matched on expressive vocabulary with 21 young children with ASD. Three quasi-naturalistic tasks were administered, each using a standard research paradigm to teach the child a new word. These tasks were supplemented by standard communication and diagnostic measures. Surprisingly, there were no group differences in performance across these word learning tasks. Overall, children with ASD were as proficient as their matched typically developing counterparts, even in word learning situations which required children to use social information (e.g., gaze and facial orientation) in order to learn a new word. However, although the children with ASD were equally as skilled in learning new words, they were consistently older than their typically developing peers and had lower cognitive abilities (although they were of average intelligence). These findings indicate that some children with ASD are able to use information from social interactions to learn new words, a result which is contradictory to previous research (Baron-Cohen et al., 1997; Preissler & Carey, 2005). However, these skills are delayed in children with ASD, and these young children may need extra contextual supports in order to learn new words. The present findings have important implications for our theoretical models of the social and communication impairments in ASD, as well as for our strategies for structuring play and intervention with children on the spectrum.