Meta-analysis of receptive and expressive language skills in autism spectrum disorder

Kwok, Elaine Yuen Ling; Brown, Heather; Smyth, Rachael

doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2014.10.008

Cited by 167 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…While this research is varied in terms of its focus, there are key similarities between most studies in this area; most work is focused on examining language and communication in sole relation to individuals diagnosed with ASD themselves. For example, some work attempts to categorise or quantify types of language and communication profiles and/or phenomena that may be presented by people diagnosed with ASD (e.g., Kwok et al 2015). A greater body of work uses experimental paradigms to attempt to identify language-oriented cognitive, neurophysiological or genetic differences in people diagnosed with ASD, and then examine potential associations between these and language performance by such individuals (e.g., Boucher et al 2008;Bartlett et al 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Discourse/Conversation Analysis and Autism Spectrum Disorder

O’Reilly

Lester

Muskett

2015

J Autism Dev Disord

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Discourse/Conversation Analysis and Autism Spectrum Disorder

O’Reilly

Lester

Muskett

2015

J Autism Dev Disord

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“…While structural language abilities, including vocabulary and grammar, are highly variable across the spectrum (Kjelgaard & Tager-Flusberg, 2001; Mawhood & Howlin, 2000), individuals with ASD are often reported to show difficulties in aspects of language comprehension (Hudry et al, 2010; Kjellmer et al, 2012; Kwok, Brown, Smyth, & Cardy, 2015), especially in understanding non-literal and ambiguous language (e.g., Happé, 1997). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced sensitivity to context in language comprehension: A characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders or of poor structural language ability?

Eberhardt

Nadig

2018

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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We present two experiments examining the universality and uniqueness of reduced context sensitivity in language processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), as proposed by the Weak Central Coherence account (Happé & Frith, 2006, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 25). That is, do all children with ASD exhibit decreased context sensitivity, and is this characteristic specific to ASD versus other neurodevelopmental conditions? Experiment 1, conducted in English, was a comparison of children with ASD with normal language and their typically-developing peers on a picture selection task where interpretation of sentential context was required to identify homonyms. Contrary to the predictions of Weak Central Coherence, the ASD-normal language group exhibited no difficulty on this task. Experiment 2, conducted in German, compared children with ASD with variable language abilities, typically-developing children, and a second control group of children with Language Impairment (LI) on a sentence completion task where a context sentence had to be considered to produce the continuation of an ambiguous sentence fragment. Both ASD-variable language and LI groups exhibited reduced context sensitivity and did not differ from each other. Finally, to directly test which factors contribute to reduced context sensitivity, we conducted a regression analysis for each experiment, entering nonverbal IQ, structural language ability, and autism diagnosis as predictors. For both experiments structural language ability emerged as the only significant predictor. These convergent findings demonstrate that reduced sensitivity to context in language processing is linked to low structural language rather than ASD diagnosis.

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“…Delays in language are evident at the group level around 12 months and become more pronounced by 24 months of age (10, 11). Difficulties in semantic and pragmatic language, and atypical receptive-expressive language profiles also emerge as language skills develop (6, 12). Early language deficits persist for a substantial proportion of children with ASD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This discrepancy reflects that language comprehension is an important prerequisite for production. Several studies have shown that children with ASD, in contrast to those with other neurodevelopmental disorders, do not consistently display this normative profile (12). Late talkers, children with specific language impairment (SLI), Down syndrome, and general developmental delay all tend to have deficits in language, but their language profiles follow the normative trend (23–25).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subcortical Brain and Behavior Phenotypes Differentiate Infants With Autism Versus Language Delay

Swanson

Shen

Elison

et al. 2017

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

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Background Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are themselves at increased risk for ASD and other developmental concerns. It is unclear if infants who display developmental concerns, but are unaffected by ASD, share similar or dissimilar behavioral and brain phenotypes to infants with ASD. Most individuals with ASD exhibit heterogeneous difficulties with language, and their receptive-expressive language profiles are often atypical. Yet, little is known about the neurobiology that contributes to these language difficulties. Methods In this study, we used behavioral assessments and structural magnetic resonance imaging to investigate early brain structure and associations with later language skills. High-risk infants who were later diagnosed with ASD (n = 86) were compared to high-risk infants who showed signs of early language delay (n = 41), and high- and low-risk infants who did not have ASD or language delay (n= 255, n = 143, respectively). Results Results indicated that diminished language skills were evident at 12-months in infants with ASD and infants with early language delay. At 24-months of age, only the ASD infants displayed atypical receptive-expressive language profiles. Associations between 12-month subcortical volumes and 24-month language skills were moderated by group status, indicating disordinal brain-behavior associations among ASD infants and language delay infants. Conclusions These results suggest that there are different brain mechanisms influencing language development in ASD and language delay infants, and that the two groups likely experience unique sets of genetic and environmental risk factors.

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Meta-analysis of receptive and expressive language skills in autism spectrum disorder

Cited by 167 publications

References 90 publications

Discourse/Conversation Analysis and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Discourse/Conversation Analysis and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Reduced sensitivity to context in language comprehension: A characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders or of poor structural language ability?

Subcortical Brain and Behavior Phenotypes Differentiate Infants With Autism Versus Language Delay

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