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. 2013 Jan;40(1):29-46.
doi: 10.1017/S0305000912000086.

Failure to learn from feedback underlies word learning difficulties in toddlers at risk for autism

R Bedford  1 , T Gliga, K Frame, K Hudry, S Chandler, M H Johnson, T Charman; BASIS TEAM
Collaborators, Affiliations
Free PMC article

Failure to learn from feedback underlies word learning difficulties in toddlers at risk for autism

R Bedford et al. J Child Lang. 2013 Jan.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Children's assignment of novel words to nameless objects, over objects whose names they know (mutual exclusivity; ME) has been described as a driving force for vocabulary acquisition. Despite their ability to use ME to fast-map words (Preissler & Carey, 2005), children with autism show impaired language acquisition. We aimed to address this puzzle by building on studies showing that correct referent selection using ME does not lead to word learning unless ostensive feedback is provided on the child's object choice (Horst & Samuelson, 2008). We found that although toddlers aged 2;0 at risk for autism can use ME to choose the correct referent of a word, they do not benefit from feedback for long-term retention of the word-object mapping. Further, their difficulty using feedback is associated with their smaller receptive vocabularies. We propose that difficulties learning from social feedback, not lexical principles, limits vocabulary building during development in children at risk for autism.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Experimental paradigm. Example of objects and words used in the fast-mapping and retention trials.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Performance during the fast-mapping trials (chance level is 0·33; error bars +/ − 1 standard error; * indicates performance significantly above chance at the p < ·05 level).
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Performance during the retention trials (chance level is 0·50; error bars +/ − 1 standard error; * indicates performance significantly above chance at the p < 0·05 level).
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Performance during the retention trials, depending on whether the feedback was reinforcing or correcting children's initial choices (chance level is 0·50; error bars +/−1 standard error; * indicates performance significantly above chance at the p < ·05 level).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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