The Production of the Opposite Adjectives in the Language of the Yemeni Children with Autism

Abstract

Aims: The main goal of the present study is to shed the light on the production of the opposite adjectives in the language of the Yemeni autistic children. Also, it compared the performance of the autistic children to the performances of typically developing children matched them chronologically and mentally. Methods & Procedures: A group of children with autism aged 7 years old chronologically and 4 years old mentally, matched to a control group of typically developing children aged 7 years old chronologically, and to a control group of typically developing children aged 4 years old mentally. The examiner used the Expressive Language Task to elicit the opposite adjectives from the three participated groups of children. Results: The findings of this study reported the significant difference between the performance of the autistic children on the adjectives, and the control TD groups of children who matched them chronologically and mentally. Additionally, the features of the opposite adjectives in the language of the autistic children were included in the current study based on their performance. Conclusion and Implication: The children with autism may face more difficulties in producing the opposite adjectives in their language. Particularly, the adjective which involve understanding the nonverbal language (e.g. happy & sad), the adjectives which they don’t use regularly in their daily activities (e.g. full & empty) or the adjectives which can be confused with other adjectives such as confusing (tall & short or thin & fat) with adjectives such as (big & small). Further, the children with autism don’t acquire and learn their mother tongue spontaneously as the typically developing children. Therefore, they need extensive teaching and effective teaching methods and tools to learn the opposite adjectives more extensively and use them properly.