Could linguistic and cognitive factors, degree of autistic traits and sex predict speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls?

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of linguistic complexity and individual background variables (i.e. linguistic and cognitive abilities, degree of autistic traits, and sex) on speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls. Thirty-two 19- to 33-year-old autistic adults and 35 controls participated in this study. The frequency of disfluencies and stuttering severity were evaluated based on a narrative speech task. Linguistic complexity was assessed by evaluating the syntactic structures of the narratives. Cognitive and linguistic abilities were assessed using the General Ability Index (GAI), Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) and Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV. Autistic traits were measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Multiple-linear regression analyses (syntactic complexity, GAI, AQ, sex, and group status as predictors) showed that (a) syntactic complexity predicted total and stuttering-like disfluencies and stuttering severity, (b) GAI predicted typical disfluencies, and (c) sex predicted total, typical, and stuttering-like disfluencies. Additional correlation analyses revealed negative association between PRI and disfluencies in the control group but not in the autistic group. No connection was found between AQ and disfluencies. It seems that while some connections between disfluencies and individual cognitive features were found, some of the possible contributing factors for greater speech disfluency might differ between autistic and typical speakers.

Non-linguistic comprehension, social inference and empathizing skills in autistic young adults, young adults with autistic traits and control young adults: Group differences and interrelatedness of skills.

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing knowledge of social communication skills of autistic peole, the interrelatedness of different skills such as non-linguistic comprehension, social inference and empathizing skills is not much known about. A better understanding of the complex interplay between different domains of social communication helps us to develop assessment protocols for individuals with social communication difficulties. AIMS: To compare the performances of autistic young adults, young adults with autistic traits identified in childhood and control young adults in social communication tasks measuring non-linguistic comprehension, social inference and empathizing skills. In addition, to examine associations between the different social communication measures. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Autistic young adults (n = 34), young adults with autistic traits (n = 19) and control young adults (n = 36) completed the extra- and paralinguistic scales of the Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo), the Faux Pas Recognition Test, Social-Pragmatic Questions (SoPra) and the Empathy Quotient (EQ). OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Group differences were found in the performance in the ABaCo, SoPra and EQ scores. Compared with the control young adults, autistic young adults scored lower. The performance of the young adults in the autistic traits group fell in between the other two groups. There were no group differences in the Faux Pas Recognition Test. The variability within the groups was large in all measurements. In the control group, there was a significant correlation between EQ and SoPra scores and between the Faux Pas and SoPra scores. In the autistic group, a significant correlation was found between Faux Pas and SoPra scores. Also, other patterns were observed but these were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The young adults with autistic traits fell in between the control and autistic young adults, highlighting the presence of the continuum in the terms of features of social communication. The results support other current research that suggests that theory of mind and other social communication skills may not be universally or widely impaired in all autistic individuals without cognitive deficits. Although all tasks examined social communication skills, only a small number of significant correlations were found between test scores. This highlights that clinical conclusions about a person's social communication should be based on the outcomes of different types of methods measuring different aspects of social communication. It is clear that the interrelatedness of different social communication skills needs further research. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject For successful communication, the ability to infer others' emotions, intentions and mental states is crucial. Autistic people have difficulty with many aspects of social communication. However, the associations between different aspects of social communication need to be better understood. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The unique contribution of this study is to compare the performance of autistic people not only with that of a control group but also with people with childhood autistic traits. This provides an understanding of the interrelatedness of different social communication skills in people with varying degrees of autistic traits. This study used four assessment methods focusing on three different social communication elements (non-linguistic comprehension, social inference and empathizing skills). These elements have complex relationships to one another, some being closely overlapping, some more distally related and some reflect more complex multifactorial elements. This study shows that although groups differ from each other in most of the assessments, the performance of different groups overlapped showing that many autistic young adults can perform well in non-linguistic and social inference tasks in structured assessment contexts. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Our findings suggest that in the assessment of social communication, self-reports and clinical assessments can be used effectively together. They can complement each other, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of a person, leading to more personalized therapeutic interventions.

Factor analysis of the autism spectrum screening questionnaire in a population-based child sample.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate several possible factor structures of the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used the 27-item screening tool for school-aged children in a general population of 8-year-old children (n = 3,538) and compared the occurring solutions to previously published factor models. RESULTS: A one-factor solution and a four-factor solution were identified in Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and confirmed with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), while two-, three-, five- and six-factor solutions were rejected. In CFA, our four-factor solution showed the best goodness-of-fit indexes when compared with factor models previously presented by Posserud et al. and Ehlers et al. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate a strong underlying connection between all ASSQ items which is elicited by the one-factor solution. Although as a screening tool, ASSQ is functioning with the unifactorial solution, the four factors can help to identify certain clusters of autism spectrum traits.

Theory of mind and emotion recognition skills in children with specific language impairment, autism spectrum disorder and typical development: group differences and connection to knowledge of grammatical morphology, word-finding abilities and verbal working memory.

BACKGROUND: Social perception skills, such as understanding the mind and emotions of others, affect children's communication abilities in real-life situations. In addition to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is increasing knowledge that children with specific language impairment (SLI) also demonstrate difficulties in their social perception abilities. AIMS: To compare the performance of children with SLI, ASD and typical development (TD) in social perception tasks measuring Theory of Mind (ToM) and emotion recognition. In addition, to evaluate the association between social perception tasks and language tests measuring word-finding abilities, knowledge of grammatical morphology and verbal working memory. METHOD & PROCEDURES: Children with SLI (n = 18), ASD (n = 14) and TD (n = 25) completed two NEPSY-II subtests measuring social perception abilities: (1) Affect Recognition and (2) ToM (includes Verbal and non-verbal Contextual tasks). In addition, children's word-finding abilities were measured with the TWF-2, grammatical morphology by using the Grammatical Closure subtest of ITPA, and verbal working memory by using subtests of Sentence Repetition or Word List Interference (chosen according the child's age) of the NEPSY-II. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Children with ASD scored significantly lower than children with SLI or TD on the NEPSY-II Affect Recognition subtest. Both SLI and ASD groups scored significantly lower than TD children on Verbal tasks of the ToM subtest of NEPSY-II. However, there were no significant group differences on non-verbal Contextual tasks of the ToM subtest of the NEPSY-II. Verbal tasks of the ToM subtest were correlated with the Grammatical Closure subtest and TWF-2 in children with SLI. In children with ASD correlation between TWF-2 and ToM: Verbal tasks was moderate, almost achieving statistical significance, but no other correlations were found. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Both SLI and ASD groups showed difficulties in tasks measuring verbal ToM but differences were not found in tasks measuring non-verbal Contextual ToM. The association between Verbal ToM tasks and language tests was stronger in children with SLI than in children with ASD. There is a need for further studies in order to understand interaction between different areas of language and cognitive development.

Linguistic and pragmatic aspects of narration in Finnish typically developing children and children with specific language impairment.

This study investigates narratives of Finnish children with specific language impairment (SLI) from linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children's narrative abilities. Nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6;1 years) and 19 typically developing age-matched children participated in the study. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for linguistic productivity and complexity, grammatical and referential accuracy, event content, the use of mental state expressions and narrative comprehension. Children with SLI showed difficulties in every aspect of narration in comparison to their peers. Only one measure of productivity, the number of communication units, did not reach statistical significance. Not only was linguistic structure fragile but also pragmatic aspects of storytelling (referencing, event content, mental state expressions and inferencing) were demanding for children with SLI. Results suggest that pragmatic aspects of narration should be taken into account more often when assessing narrative abilities of children with SLI.

Associations between social anxiety, physiological reactivity, and speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to examine possible associations of social anxiety (SA) and speaking-related physiological reactivity with the frequencies of a) total disfluencies, b) typical disfluencies, and c) stuttering-like disfluencies, as well as d) stuttering-severity in autistic young adults and controls. METHODS: Thirty-two autistic young adults and 35 controls participated in this study. Participants were presented with video clips (viewing condition) and were then asked to talk about the videos (narrating condition). SA was measured by the self-report Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI). Speaking-related physiological reactivity was measured by the electrodermal activity (EDA), an index of emotional arousal. The speech samples from the narrating condition were analyzed for type and frequency of speech disfluencies and used for determining the stuttering severity. SA and speaking-related physiological reactivity were compared between the groups. Correlation between SA, physiological reactivity, disfluency frequencies, and stuttering severity were tested separately for both groups. RESULTS: No between-group differences were found in the overall SA, yet differences were found in SPAI subscales of social interaction, group interaction, and avoidance, as well as in agoraphobia. Both groups had higher physiological arousal in narrating condition in comparison to the video viewing condition, yet there was no between-group difference in the reactivity. No associations were found between SPAI measures, physiological reactivity, disfluency frequencies, and stuttering severity in the autistic group. In the control group, a negative association was found between physiological reactivity and total and typical disfluency frequencies. CONCLUSIONS: SA or speaking-related physiological reactivity were not associated with disfluency frequencies or stuttering severity in autistic persons. Negative association between physiological reactivity and disfluency frequencies found in the control group may indicate that the physiological arousal may impact the speech production process by reducing the overt disfluencies.

Development of Social-Pragmatic Understanding in Children With Congenital Hearing Loss and Typical Hearing Between the Ages of 4 and 6 Years.

PURPOSE: This prospective longitudinal study aimed to explore (a) the development of social-pragmatic understanding of children with bilateral hearing aids (BiHAs), bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs), and typical hearing (TH) between the ages of 4 and 6 years and (b) group differences between children with BiHAs, BiCIs, and TH. METHOD: The Pragma test was used for a comprehensive assessment of social-pragmatic understanding of a total of 86 children: 19 children with BiHAs, 22 children with BiCIs, and 45 children with TH. The Pragma test requires answering socially and contextually demanding questions and explaining the right answers. The explanation tasks are targeted at studying the participant's own awareness of the inferencing process. The children in this study were assessed yearly at the ages of 4, 5, and 6 years. RESULTS: The participants with BiHAs, BiCIs, and TH showed significant development in their social-pragmatic understanding between the ages of 4 and 6 years, but most children with hearing loss (HL) still did not meet age expectations at the age of 6 years. Children with BiHAs and BiCIs both showed large-scale inferential difficulties, including utilizing theory of mind, utilizing verbal and visual information, and understanding conversational norms and emotions in context. CONCLUSIONS: Children with BiHAs and BiCIs are at risk of delays in social-pragmatic understanding despite early detection of HL, early amplification, and cochlear implantation. Therefore, the social-pragmatic abilities of children with HL should be assessed regularly, and the children with HL should have early access to social-pragmatic interventions where utilizing contextual information is practiced comprehensively.

Autistic adults and adults with sub-clinical autistic traits differ from non-autistic adults in social-pragmatic inferencing and narrative discourse.

LAY ABSTRACT: Previous social-pragmatic and narrative research involving autistic individuals has mostly focused on children. Little is known about how autistic adults and adults who have autistic traits but do not have a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) interpret complex social situations and tell narratives about these situations. We asked 32 autistic young adults, 18 adults with autistic traits but no ASD diagnosis, and 34 non-autistic young adults to watch socially complex situations and freely tell narratives about what they thought was occurring in each situation. These narratives were analysed for how the participants had interpreted the situations and for the type of narratives they produced. We found that the groups had both similarities and differences. Regarding the differences, we found that the autistic adults and adults with autistic traits interpreted the situations differently from the non-autistic adults. The autistic adults found different aspects of the situations relevant, had different foci and placed greater importance on details than the non-autistic adults. The autistic adults and adults with autistic traits also differed from the non-autistic adults by having more detail- and event-focused narratives whereas the non-autistic adults were more likely to base their narratives on their own broad interpretations of the situations. Perceptual processing styles appeared to play a bigger role in interpreting the situations for the autistic adults and adults with autistic traits than the non-autistic adults. Our findings suggest that autistic adults and adults with autistic traits focus on different aspects in their social world than non-autistic adults.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Speech Disfluencies in Autistic Young Adults and Control Young Adults: Group Differences in Typical, Stuttering-Like, and Atypical Disfluencies.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls by using a wide-range disfluency classification of typical disfluencies (TD; i.e., filled pauses, revisions, abandoned utterances, and multisyllable word and phrase repetitions), stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD; i.e., sound and syllable repetitions, monosyllable word repetitions, prolongations, blocks, and broken words), and atypical disfluencies (AD; i.e., word-final prolongations and repetitions and atypical insertions). METHOD: Thirty-two autistic young adults and 35 controls completed a narrative telling task based on socially complex events. Frequencies of total disfluencies, TD, SLD, AD and stuttering severity were compared between groups. RESULTS: The overall frequency of disfluencies was significantly higher in the autistic group and significant between-group differences were found for all disfluency categories. The autistic group produced significantly more revisions, filled pauses, and abandoned utterances, and each subtype of SLD and AD than the control group. In total, approximately every fourth autistic participants scored at least a very mild severity of stuttering, and every fifth produced more than three SLD per 100 syllables. CONCLUSIONS: Disfluent speech can be challenging for effective communication. This study revealed that the speech of autistic young adults was highly more disfluent than that of the controls. The findings provide information on speech disfluency characteristics in autistic young adults and highlight the importance of evaluating speech disfluency with a wide-range disfluency classification in autistic persons in order to understand their role in overall communication. The results of this study offer tools for SLPs to evaluate and understand the nature of disfluencies in autistic persons.

[Autism spectrum disorders in children and adolescents]. / Autismikirjon häiriöt lapsilla ja nuorilla.

Childhood autism, Asperger's syndrome and atypical autism together make up autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) with a prevalence of 0.6-0.7%. These disorders are defined by qualitative impairments in social interaction, qualitative abnormalities in communication, and by restricted, stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and activities. Many children or adolescents with ASDs have sensory abnormalities, neurological disorders and additional disabilities of vision, hearing or ambulation. Psychiatric co-morbidity is common. Diagnostics and rehabilitation are implemented in multi-professional collaboration. Early recognition makes up the basis for early intervention that improves the prognosis. Screening of these disorders in well-baby clinics is being developed.

Communication abilities in children with hearing loss - views of parents and daycare professionals.

INTRODUCTION: Today, children with hearing loss (HL) are diagnosed and fitted with hearing devices at an early age. However, HL may still influence their communicative development. Thus, we need up-to-date research on how children perform in their everyday environments, such as at home or daycare. This study provides an overview of the communication abilities of early-diagnosed children with HL reported by parents and daycare professionals. The first aim of the study is to compare the results of children with bilateral hearing aids (BiHAs) or bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) with those of children with normal hearing (NH) and with each other. The second aim of the study is to compare the views of the two respondents, parents and the daycare professionals. In addition, the effects of gender and nonverbal intelligence quotient (IQ) on the responses are explored. METHODS: The participants, aged 4;0-6;9, were 25 children with BiHAs, 29 children with BiCIs, and 64 children with NH. The Finnish version of the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2) was used to assess the communication skills of the participants. RESULTS: Group and nonverbal IQ had a significant effect on the General Communication Composite (GCC) score. Both groups of children with HL had poorer GCC scores than the children with NH, apart from the respondent. The BiHA-group had significantly lower scores than the NH-group on Speech, Syntax, Semantics, and Coherence subscales. The BiCI-group had significantly lower scores than the NH-group across all subscales of the CCC-2. The parents rated the participants significantly higher than the daycare professionals in Speech and Social Relations. In contrast, the daycare professionals rated the participants higher than the parents in Coherence, Inappropriate Initiation, Stereotyped Language, and Use of Context. Furthermore, gender influenced Coherence, Nonverbal Communication, Social Relations, and Interests, for which the girls performed better than the boys. The nonverbal IQ had an effect on Syntax, Semantics, and Use of Context, for which higher nonverbal IQ was associated with better performance. CONCLUSIONS: On average the children with HL had poorer communication skills than the children with NH. Pragmatic difficulties were more common in the BiCI-group than in the BiHA-group. The respondents were not completely unanimous, which may be because of the different demands of different environments.

Social-Pragmatic Inferencing, Visual Social Attention and Physiological Reactivity to Complex Social Scenes in Autistic Young Adults.

This study examined social-pragmatic inferencing, visual social attention and physiological reactivity to complex social scenes. Participants were autistic young adults (n = 14) and a control group of young adults (n = 14) without intellectual disability. Results indicate between-group differences in social-pragmatic inferencing, moment-level social attention and heart rate variability (HRV) reactivity. A key finding suggests associations between increased moment-level social attention to facial emotion expressions, better social-pragmatic inferencing and greater HRV suppression in autistic young adults. Supporting previous research, better social-pragmatic inferencing was found associated with less autistic traits.

Atypical Inter-Network Deactivation Associated With the Posterior Default-Mode Network in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Previous studies have suggested that atypical deactivation of functional brain networks contributes to the complex cognitive and behavioral profile associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, these studies have not considered the temporal dynamics of deactivation mechanisms between the networks. In this study, we examined (a) mutual deactivation and (b) mutual activation-deactivation (i.e., anticorrelated) time-lag patterns between resting-state networks (RSNs) in young adults with ASD (n = 20) and controls (n = 20) by applying the recently defined dynamic lag analysis (DLA) method, which measures time-lag variations peak-by-peak between the networks. In order to achieve temporally accurate lag patterns, the brain imaging data was acquired with a fast functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sequence (TR = 100 ms). Group-level independent component analysis was used to identify 16 RSNs for the DLA. We found altered mutual deactivation timings in ASD in (a) three of the deactivated and (b) two of the transiently anticorrelated (activated-deactivated) RSN pairs, which survived the strict threshold for significance of surrogate data. Of the significant RSN pairs, 80% included the posterior default-mode network (DMN). We propose that temporally altered deactivation mechanisms, including timings and directionality, between the posterior DMN and RSNs mediating processing of socially relevant information may contribute to the ASD phenotype. LAY SUMMARY: To understand autistic traits on a neural level, we examined temporal fluctuations in information flow between brain regions in young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and controls. We used a fast neuroimaging procedure to investigate deactivation mechanisms between brain regions. We found that timings and directionality of communication between certain brain regions were temporally altered in ASD, suggesting atypical deactivation mechanisms associated with the posterior default-mode network.

Neural-level associations of non-verbal pragmatic comprehension in young Finnish autistic adults.

This video-based study examines the pragmatic non-verbal comprehension skills and corresponding neural-level findings in young Finnish autistic adults, and controls. Items from the Assessment Battery of Communication (ABaCo) were chosen to evaluate the comprehension of non-verbal communication. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) analysis of the functional magnetic resonance imaging data was used to reveal the synchrony of brain activation across participants during the viewing of pragmatically complex scenes of ABaCo videos. The results showed a significant difference between the ISC maps of the autistic and control groups in tasks involving the comprehension of non-verbal communication, thereby revealing several brain regions where correlation of brain activity was greater within the control group. The results suggest a possible weaker modulation of brain states in response to the pragmatic non-verbal communicative situations in autistic participants. Although there was no difference between the groups in behavioural responses to ABaCo items, there was more variability in the accuracy of the responses in the autistic group. Furthermore, mean answering and reaction times correlated with the severity of autistic traits. The results indicate that even if young autistic adults may have learned to use compensatory resources in their communicative-pragmatic comprehension, pragmatic processing in naturalistic situations still requires additional effort.

Processing of pragmatic communication in ASD: a video-based brain imaging study.

Social and pragmatic difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are widely recognized, although their underlying neural level processing is not well understood. The aim of this study was to examine the activity of the brain network components linked to social and pragmatic understanding in order to reveal whether complex socio-pragmatic events evoke differences in brain activity between the ASD and control groups. Nineteen young adults (mean age 23.6 years) with ASD and 19 controls (mean age 22.7 years) were recruited for the study. The stimulus data consisted of video clips showing complex social events that demanded processing of pragmatic communication. In the analysis, the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal responses of the selected brain network components linked to social and pragmatic information processing were compared. Although the processing of the young adults with ASD was similar to that of the control group during the majority of the social scenes, differences between the groups were found in the activity of the social brain network components when the participants were observing situations with concurrent verbal and non-verbal communication events. The results suggest that the ASD group had challenges in processing concurrent multimodal cues in complex pragmatic communication situations.

Dynamic lag analysis reveals atypical brain information flow in autism spectrum disorder.

This study investigated whole-brain dynamic lag pattern variations between neurotypical (NT) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by applying a novel technique called dynamic lag analysis (DLA). The use of 3D magnetic resonance encephalography data with repetition time = 100 msec enables highly accurate analysis of the spread of activity between brain networks. Sixteen resting-state networks (RSNs) with the highest spatial correlation between NT individuals (n = 20) and individuals with ASD (n = 20) were analyzed. The dynamic lag pattern variation between each RSN pair was investigated using DLA, which measures time lag variation between each RSN pair combination and statistically defines how these lag patterns are altered between ASD and NT groups. DLA analyses indicated that 10.8% of the 120 RSN pairs had statistically significant (P-value <0.003) dynamic lag pattern differences that survived correction with surrogate data thresholding. Alterations in lag patterns were concentrated in salience, executive, visual, and default-mode networks, supporting earlier findings of impaired brain connectivity in these regions in ASD. 92.3% and 84.6% of the significant RSN pairs revealed shorter mean and median temporal lags in ASD versus NT, respectively. Taken together, these results suggest that altered lag patterns indicating atypical spread of activity between large-scale functional brain networks may contribute to the ASD phenotype. Autism Res 2020, 13: 244-258. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by atypical neurodevelopment. Using an ultra-fast neuroimaging procedure, we investigated communication across brain regions in adults with ASD compared with neurotypical (NT) individuals. We found that ASD individuals had altered information flow patterns across brain regions. Atypical patterns were concentrated in salience, executive, visual, and default-mode network areas of the brain that have previously been implicated in the pathophysiology of the disorder.

Assessing social-pragmatic inferencing skills in children with autism spectrum disorder.

By utilizing the Pragma test this study investigated how sixteen five- to ten-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sixteen typically developing (TD) children comprehended contextually challenging scenarios demanding 1) contextual inference with theory of mind (ToM), 2) contextual inference without ToM, 3) relevant use of language, 4) recognition of feelings, and 5) understanding false beliefs. The study also compared children's ability to explain their own correct answers. In addition, this study evaluated the sensitivity of three different methods for discriminating the children with ASD from the TD children: 1) the Pragma test, 2) the Social Interaction Deviance Composite (SIDC) of Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2), and 3) the Theory of Mind subtest of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, Second edition (NEPSY-II). The results showed that children with ASD differed from TD children in questions demanding context utilization. However, the demand of mind-reading in utterance interpretation increased the difference between groups. Compared to TD children, children with ASD had more difficulties in explaining how they had used context to arrive at the correct answer. The discrimination power for detecting children with ASD from TD children was excellent in the Pragma test, good in the SIDC CCC-2 and fair in the Theory of Mind subtest of NEPSY-II. This study showed that by using contextually sensitive materials, such as the Pragma test, it is possible to detect the social-pragmatic inferencing difficulties of high-functioning children with ASD in structured test situations and not only in real-life situations or by using parental reports.

Use of context in pragmatic language comprehension by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

Utilizing relevance theory, this study investigated the ability of children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) to use context when answering questions and when giving explanations for their correct answers. Three groups participated in this study: younger AS/HFA group (age 7-9, n=16), older AS/HFA group (age 10-12, n=23) and a normally functioning control group (age 7-9, n=23). The results indicated that the younger AS/HFA group did less well when answering contextually demanding questions compared to the control group, and the performance of the older AS/HFA group fell in between the younger AS/HFA group and the control group. Both AS/HFA groups had difficulties explaining their correct answers, suggesting that they are not always aware of how they have derived answers from the context.

Answering contextually demanding questions: pragmatic errors produced by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

UNLABELLED: This study examined irrelevant/incorrect answers produced by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism (7-9-year-olds and 10-12-year-olds) and normally developing children (7-9-year-olds). The errors produced were divided into three types: in Type 1, the child answered the original question incorrectly, in Type 2, the child gave a correct answer, but when asked a follow-up question, he/she explained the answer incorrectly, and in Type 3, the child first gave a correct answer or explanation, but continued answering, which ultimately led to an irrelevant answer. Analyses of Type 1 and 2 errors indicated that all the children tried to utilize contextual information, albeit incorrectly. Analyses of Type 3 errors showed that topic drifts were almost non-existent in the control group, but common in the clinical group, suggesting that these children had difficulties in stopping processing after deriving a relevant answer. LEARNING OUTCOMES: The reader becomes aware of the different instances which may lead to the irrelevance of answers and get knowledge about features of answers of children with AS/HFA.