Thinking Ahead: Incremental Language Processing is Associated with Receptive Language Abilities in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

In typical development, listeners can use semantic content of verbs to facilitate incremental language processing-a skill that is associated with existing language skills. Studies of children with ASD have not identified an association between incremental language processing in semantically-constraining contexts and language skills, perhaps because participants were adolescents and/or children with strong language skills. This study examined incremental language processing and receptive language in young children with ASD with a range of language skills. Children showed a head start when presented with semantically-constraining verbs (e.g., Read the book) compared to neutral verbs (e.g., Find the book). Children with weaker receptive language showed a smaller head start than children with stronger receptive language skills, suggesting continuity between typical development and ASD.

Keywords: Autism; Comprehension; Individual differences; Language impairment; Language processing; Prediction.

Figure 1.

Sample visual stimuli from the experimental task.

Figure 2.

Mean looks to target in each trial type during the full trial. Time represents the time course of the trial, with 0 at the onset of the target noun. The proportion of looking to target was the amount of time looking at the target, divided by the amount of time looking at either image. The solid grey line indicates verb onset. The first dotted line indicates the start of the analysis window, and the second dotted line indicates the end of the analysis window. Shading represents plus or minus one standard error of the mean.

Figure 3.

Raw data and model fits (from the baseline model) in each trial type during the analysis window. Time represents the time course of the trial, with 0 at the onset of the target noun. The proportion of looking to target was the amount of time looking at the target, divided by the amount of time looking at either image. Error bars represent plus or minus one standard error of the mean.

Figure 4.

Mean looks to target in each trial type during the analysis window. For purposes of illustration, patterns for children with weaker receptive language skills (below the median) are shown in the left panel and patterns for children stronger receptive language skills (above the median) are shown in the right panel. Receptive language was measured by growth scale values from the Auditory Comprehension scale of the PLS-5. Children with weaker language skills showed an attenuated head start relative to the children with stronger language skills. Time represents the time course of the trial, with 0 at the onset of the target noun. The proportion of looking to target was the amount of time looking at the target, divided by the amount of time looking at either image. Error bars represent plus or minus one standard error of the mean.