Language and False-Belief Task Performance in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org

Y

15

Autism; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Children; Comparative Analysis; Beliefs; Receptive Language; Expressive Language; Vocabulary; Performance; Comprehension; Child Development

10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-15-0422

1092-4388

Purpose: Language is related to false-belief (FB) understanding in both typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study examined the role of complementation and general language in FB understanding. Of interest was whether language plays similar or different roles in the groups' FB performance. Method: Participants were 16 typically developing children (mean age = 5.0 years; mental age = 6.7) and 18 with ASD (mean age = 7.3 years; mental age = 8.3). Children were administered FB and language tasks ("say"- and "think"-complements), receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and relative clauses. Results: When mental age and receptive and expressive vocabulary were used as separate covariates, the typical control group outperformed the children with ASD in FB task performance. Chi-square analyses indicated that passing both complementation tasks was linked to the FB understanding of children with ASD. Children with ASD who passed FB tasks all passed "say"-and "think"-complement tasks. However, some children in the control group were able to pass the FB tasks, even if they failed the "say"- and "think"-complement tasks. Conclusion: The results indicate that children with ASD relied more on complement understanding to pass FB than typically developing children. Results are discussed regarding the developmental pathways for FB understanding.

ERIC

2017

EJ1151258