Lexical Processing in School-Age Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Children with Specific Language Impairment: The Role of Semantics

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) often have immature lexical-semantic knowledge; however, the organization of lexical-semantic knowledge is poorly understood. This study examined lexical processing in school-age children with ASD, SLI, and typical development, who were matched on receptive vocabulary. Children completed a lexical decision task, involving words with high and low semantic network sizes and nonwords. Children also completed nonverbal updating and shifting tasks. Children responded more accurately to words from high than from low semantic networks; however, follow-up analyses identified weaker semantic network effects in the SLI group. Additionally, updating and shifting abilities predicted lexical processing, demonstrating similarity in the mechanisms which underlie semantic processing in children with ASD, SLI, and typical development.

The Relationship Between Executive Functions and Language Abilities in Children: A Latent Variables Approach

“…In addition, our use of off-line lexical-semantic measures may have contributed to the lack of the relationship between lexical-semantic and EF measures in the present study. Studies in which significant relationships between EFs and lexical-semantic skills have been documented have typically targeted processing-type tasks (such as lexical priming or lexical decision), in which one's ability to quickly access a word (often from a pool of related candidates) was probed (e.g., Haebig, Kaushanskaya, & Ellis Weismer, 2015;Khanna & Boland, 2010). In the present study, lexical-semantic abilities were measured through the use of off-line comprehension tasks that did not impose time demands on the children.…”

A Discrepancy in Comprehension and Production in Early Language Development in ASD: Is it Clinically Relevant?

“…Because LTs are at risk for SLI (Taylor et al 2013), one possibility is that although there is evidence for certain areas of overlap in aspects of grammatical and semantic abilities in ASD and SLI (Haebig et al 2015; Kjelgaard and Tager-Flusberg 2001), an early comprehension-production discrepancy profile is not a common feature of these groups. However, only direct investigation of older children with an actual SLI diagnosis could confirm this possibility.…”

“…There are several reasons that comparison of language profiles in LT toddlers and toddlers with ASD may be of interest. Given the research focused on possible overlaps in language profiles between children with ASD and those with SLI (Haebig et al 2015; Loukusa et al 2014; McGregor et al 2012; Norbury 2005; Whitehouse et al 2007), insights regarding initial stages of this potential overlap could be gained by studying LTs who are at risk for SLI (Ellis Weismer 2007). Because SLI is not diagnosed until later in the preschool period (Tager-Flusberg and Cooper 1999), it is necessary to consider an at-risk population in order to investigate early periods of development.…”

Auditory Lexical Decisions in Developmental Language Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Behavioral Studies

“…There was broad consensus that the rejection of non-words was slower and less accurate across groups than responses to words, with this pattern typically pronounced in DLD groups relative to age-matched controls (Edwards & Lahey, 1996;Haebig et al, 2015;Pizzioli & Schelstraete, 2013). This finding may be attributable to the absence of long-term representations corresponding to non-words prompting extended lexical searches, though positive response bias may also play a role.…”

“…Word and non-word stimuli were often further manipulated in line with the primary study aims. Haebig et al (2015), for instance, manipulated semantic network size to examine the role of semantics in spoken word processing by children with DLD and autism spectrum disorder. In this study, stimuli comprised twenty target words with a high number of semantically associated words, and twenty target words with a low number of semantically AUDITORY LEXICAL DECISIONS IN DLD 21 associated words.…”