Enhanced pitch discrimination in autistic children with unexpected bilingualism

IF 5.3 2区 医学 Q1 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Autism Research Pub Date : 2024-08-26 DOI:10.1002/aur.3221
Charlotte Dumont, Marie Belenger, Inge-Marie Eigsti, Mikhail Kissine
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Abstract

Some autistic children acquire foreign languages from exposure to screens. Such unexpected bilingualism (UB) is therefore not driven by social interaction, rather, language acquisition appears to rely on less socially mediated learning and other cognitive processes. We hypothesize that UB children may rely on other cues, such as acoustic cues, of the linguistic input. Previous research indicates enhanced pitch processing in some autistic children, often associated with language delays and difficulties in forming stable phonological categories due to sensitivity to subtle linguistic variations. We propose that repetitive screen-based input simplifies linguistic complexity, allowing focus on individual cues. This study hypothesizes that autistic UB children exhibit superior pitch discrimination compared with both autistic and non-autistic peers. From a sample of 46 autistic French-speaking children aged 9 to 16, 12 were considered as UB. These children, along with 45 non-autistic children, participated in a two-alternative forced-choice pitch discrimination task. They listened to pairs of pure tones, 50% of which differed by 3% (easy), 2% (medium), or 1% (hard). A stringent comparison of performance revealed that only the autistic UB group performed above chance for tone pairs that differed, across all conditions. This group demonstrated superior pitch discrimination relative to autistic and non-autistic peers. This study establishes the phenomenon of UB in autism and provides evidence for enhanced pitch discrimination in this group. Acute perception of auditory information, combined with repeated language content, may facilitate UB children's focus on phonetic features, and help acquire a language with no communicative support or motivation.

自闭症儿童意外双语能力的音高辨别能力增强。
一些自闭症儿童通过接触屏幕获得外语。因此,这种意料之外的双语(UB)并不是由社会互动驱动的,相反,语言习得似乎依赖于社会中介性较弱的学习和其他认知过程。我们假设,意外双语儿童可能依赖于语言输入的其他线索,如声音线索。先前的研究表明,一些自闭症儿童的音调处理能力增强,这往往与语言延迟以及因对微妙的语言变化敏感而难以形成稳定的语音类别有关。我们认为,基于屏幕的重复输入可简化语言的复杂性,从而使注意力集中在单个线索上。本研究假设,与自闭症和非自闭症同龄人相比,自闭症 UB 儿童表现出卓越的音高辨别能力。在 46 名年龄介于 9 至 16 岁的法语自闭症儿童样本中,有 12 名儿童被认为是 UB。这些儿童与 45 名非自闭症儿童一起参加了一项双向强迫选择音高辨别任务。他们聆听了一对纯音,其中 50%的音调相差 3%(容易)、2%(中等)或 1%(困难)。对成绩进行严格比较后发现,在所有条件下,只有自闭症 UB 组在有差异的音调对中的表现高于正常水平。与自闭症和非自闭症同龄人相比,该组的音高辨别能力更胜一筹。这项研究证实了自闭症患者的 UB 现象,并提供了该群体音调辨别能力增强的证据。对听觉信息的敏锐感知与重复的语言内容相结合,可能会促进 UB 儿童对语音特征的关注,并有助于他们在没有交流支持或动机的情况下掌握语言。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Autism Research
Autism Research 医学-行为科学
CiteScore
8.00
自引率
8.50%
发文量
187
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: AUTISM RESEARCH will cover the developmental disorders known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (or autism spectrum disorders – ASDs). The Journal focuses on basic genetic, neurobiological and psychological mechanisms and how these influence developmental processes in ASDs.
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