Facing phonological complexity as an autistic adult: An exploratory study.

IF 2.5 Q1 EDUCATION, SPECIAL
Autism and Developmental Language Impairments Pub Date : 2025-03-26 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1177/23969415251322751
Marta Manenti, Philippe Prévost, Emmanuelle Houy-Durand, Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault, Sandrine Ferré
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background and aims: While it has been suggested that phonology is relatively spared in autism, some studies have shown that many autistic children and adolescents exhibit severe phonological impairment, of which syllabic complexity is a reliable index. However, although autism is a lifelong disorder, no such evidence exists for adults. The aim of the present study is to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating how autistic adults deal with phonological complexity.

Method: Phonological abilities were assessed in 48 autistic adults aged 18 to 56 years and 50 controls matched on age and sex/gender. A linguistically motivated Nonword Repetition (NWR) task manipulating syllabic complexity, LITMUS-QU(Quasi Universal)-FR(ench)-NWR-Adults, was used to distinguish participants with and without a phonological impairment. In addition to the NWR task, additional tests were conducted to examine potential factors influencing phonological performance. These measures included morphosyntax, vocabulary, nonverbal IQ (NVIQ), short-term memory, working memory, and autism severity, providing a comprehensive understanding of variables affecting phonological abilities in autistic adults.

Results: Global performance on NWR was significantly lower and spanned a wider range in the autism group than that in the control group. By looking at individual results across the structures and substructures included in NWR, which presented varying degrees of syllabic complexity, it was possible to uncover great variability among autistic individuals with a phonologicalimpairment. Phonological proficiency appeared to be related to morphosyntax rather than to lexical knowledge and nonverbal cognition, including memory. Moreover, phonological skills did not correlate with autism severity.

Conclusions: This study represents a first step towards understanding how to characterize phonological skills in autistic adults. Our findings indicate that syllabic complexity prompts diverse behaviors among autistic individuals with impaired phonology. Further research is required to gain insight into the cause(s) underlying the detected difficulties.

面对自闭症成人的语音复杂性:一项探索性研究。
背景与目的:虽然有研究认为自闭症的音系障碍相对较少,但一些研究表明,许多自闭症儿童和青少年表现出严重的音系障碍,其中音节复杂性是一个可靠的指标。然而,尽管自闭症是一种终身疾病,但在成年人身上却没有这样的证据。本研究的目的是通过调查自闭症成人如何处理语音复杂性来弥合这一知识差距。方法:对48名年龄在18 ~ 56岁的自闭症成年人和50名年龄和性别匹配的对照组进行语音能力评估。采用一项语言动机的非词重复(NWR)任务,即LITMUS-QU(Quasi Universal)-FR(ench)-NWR-Adults,来区分有语音障碍和没有语音障碍的参与者。除了NWR任务外,还进行了额外的测试来检查影响语音表现的潜在因素。这些测量包括词法、词汇、非语言智商(NVIQ)、短期记忆、工作记忆和自闭症严重程度,为自闭症成人影响语音能力的变量提供了全面的了解。结果:自闭症组的NWR整体表现明显低于对照组,且范围更广。通过观察NWR中包含的结构和亚结构的个体结果,这些结构和亚结构呈现出不同程度的音节复杂性,有可能揭示具有语音障碍的自闭症个体之间的巨大差异。语音熟练程度似乎与形态语法有关,而与词汇知识和非语言认知(包括记忆)无关。此外,语音技能与自闭症的严重程度没有关联。结论:本研究是了解自闭症成人语音技能特征的第一步。我们的研究结果表明,音节复杂性促使语音受损的自闭症个体的不同行为。需要进行进一步的研究,以深入了解所发现的困难背后的原因。
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 and Developmental Language Impairments
Autism and Developmental Language Impairments Psychology-Clinical Psychology
CiteScore
3.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
20
审稿时长
12 weeks
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