Disentangling syntactic, semantic and pragmatic impairments in ASD : elicited production of passives

Children with ASD and an IQ-matched control group of typically developing (TD) children completed an elicited-production task which encouraged the production of reversible passive sentences (e.g., “Bob was hit by Wendy”). Although the two groups showed similar levels of correct production, the ASD group produced a significantly greater number of “reversal” errors (e.g., “Wendy was hit by Bob”, when, in fact Wendy hit Bob) than the TD group (who, when they did not produce correct passives, instead generally produced semantically appropriate actives; e.g., “Wendy hit Bob”). These findings suggest that the more formal elements of syntax are spared relative to more semantic/pragmatic/narrative aspects (e.g., manipulating thematic roles) in at least high-functioning children with ASD

Syntactic representations are both abstract and semantically constrained : evidence from children’s and adults’ comprehension and production/priming of the English passive

All accounts of language acquisition agree that, by around age 4, children’s knowledge of grammatical constructions is abstract, rather than tied solely to individual lexical items. The aim of the present research was to investigate, focusing on the passive, whether children’s and adults’ performance is additionally semantically constrained, varying according to the distance between the semantics of the verb and those of the construction. In a forced‐choice pointing study (Experiment 1), both 4‐ to 6‐year olds (N = 60) and adults (N = 60) showed support for the prediction of this semantic construction prototype account of an interaction such that the observed disadvantage for passives as compared to actives (i.e., fewer correct points/longer reaction time) was greater for experiencer‐theme verbs than for agent‐patient and theme‐experiencer verbs (e.g., Bob was seen/hit/frightened by Wendy). Similarly, in a production/priming study (Experiment 2), both 4‐ to 6‐year olds (N = 60) and adults (N = 60) produced fewer passives for experiencer‐theme verbs than for agent‐patient/theme‐experiencer verbs. We conclude that these findings are difficult to explain under accounts based on the notion of A(rgument) movement or of a monostratal, semantics‐free, level of syntax, and instead necessitate some form of semantic construction prototype account

The retreat from overgeneralisation errors: A multiple-paradigm approach

This thesis examines children’s argument structure overgeneralisation errors (e.g. *Don’t giggle me!). Errors of this kind arise from children observing that certain verbs can appear in more than one argument structure (e.g. The ball rolled/Homer rolled the ball). This pattern can be usefully generalised to allow children who have heard a verb produced in only one of these structures (e.g. The window opened) to produce it in the other (e.g. Marge opened the window). The ability to generalise patterns to new items is key to children becoming productive language users. However, if they overgeneralise this pattern, errors will result: Bart giggled is grammatical, but *Lisa giggled Bart (meaning Lisa made Bart giggle) is not. This thesis tested three hypotheses designed to explain how children retreat from such overgeneralisation errors, or, indeed, avoid making them altogether: the semantic verb class hypothesis (Pinker, 1989); the entrenchment hypothesis (Braine & Brooks, 1995); and the preemption hypothesis (Goldberg, 1995). Chapter 3 uses a novel-verb grammaticality judgment paradigm to investigate overgeneralisation errors in the locative construction (e.g. *Marge filled tea into the cup). Chapter 4 investigates overgeneralisation errors in the transitive and intransitive constructions, using a grammaticality judgment paradigm with known verbs, as well as a production priming paradigm designed to elicit errors from young children (e.g. *Homer swam the fish). Finally, in order to investigate the role of semantics in language development more generally, Chapter 5 moves beyond overgeneralisation errors to investigate children’s acquisition of the passive construction (e.g. Bart was helped by Lisa). This thesis adds to a growing body of work demonstrating that none of the individual theories (semantics, entrenchment, preemption) alone is able to explain children’s retreat from overgeneralisation, and that an integrated approach, such as that proposed by Ambridge and colleagues’ FIT account, is required to account for the data. The thesis moves our understanding forward by demonstrating both that this account can explain error patterns in production, and that the role of verb-in-construction semantic compatibility (a key aspect of the FIT account) can explain children’s acquisition of argument structure more widely

Does speed of processing or vocabulary size predict later language growth in toddlers?

It is becoming increasingly clear that the way that children acquire cognitive representations depends critically on how their processing system is developing. In particular, recent studies suggest that individual differences in language processing speed play an important role in explaining the speed with which children acquire language. Inconsistencies across studies, however, mean that it is not clear whether this relationship is causal or correlational, whether it is present right across development, or whether it extends beyond word learning to affect other aspects of language learning, like syntax acquisition. To address these issues, the current study used the looking-while-listening paradigm devised by Fernald, Swingley, and Pinto (2001) to test the speed with which a large longitudinal cohort of children (the Language 0–5 Project) pro-cessed language at 19, 25, and 31 months of age, and took multiple measures of vocabulary (UK-CDI, Lincoln CDI, CDI-III) and syntax (Lincoln CDI) between 8 and 37 months of age. Processing speed correlated with vocabulary size - though this relationship changed over time, and was observed only when there was variation in how well the items used in the looking-while-listening task were known. Fast processing speed was a positive predictor of subsequent vocabulary growth, but only for children with smaller vocabularies. Faster processing speed did, however, predict faster syntactic growth across the whole sample, even when controlling for concurrent vocabulary. The results indicate a relatively direct relationship between processing speed and syntactic development, but point to a more complex interaction between processing speed, vocabulary size and subsequent vocabulary growth

The multiple roles of media use within the family system during lockdown: A thematic analysis of parental reports from the UK

Children's media use increased during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Here, we present a thematic analysis of online survey responses from 69 parents (of children aged 0–11 years) who described their family media use after the first UK lockdown. Data highlight an increased reliance on media use driven by the challenges of managing time, work, leisure and social connection. Parents reported the additional work of regulating family media use amidst concerns about harmful effects. We draw on an ecological systems approach to discuss how the role of media in family functioning is determined by societal institutions and discourses around parenting and screens

Broad Perspectives of the Experience of Romantic Relationships and Sexual Education in Neurodivergent Adolescents and Young Adults

Neurodivergent young people tend to struggle with building and maintaining their romantic relationships. Despite this, there appears to be a lack of appropriate sexuality education delivered to them. This review aims to present and discuss the most current literature (conducted between 2015 and current) on romantic relationships and sexuality education in young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and ASD co-occurring with ADHD. Six internet-based bibliographic databases were used for the present review that followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Thirty-one studies were identified in this review. Twenty-six studies investigated the topic in the autistic young population. Four studies explored qualitatively and 11 quantitatively young people’s perspectives of their romantic relationship experiences. One study investigated qualitatively and three quantitatively young people’s perspectives on sexuality education. One study explored qualitatively and five quantitatively young people’s romantic relationship experiences and two explored qualitatively and three quantitatively sexuality education from caregivers’ perspectives. Five studies (all quantitative, self-reports) investigated romantic relationship experiences in the young population with ADHD. The studies conducted on the topic from the educational professionals’ perspectives were absent in the literature. The literature was also non-existent on the topic in the population with ASD co-occurring with ADHD. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first review exploring romantic relationships and sexuality education in three groups of neurodivergent young people (with ASD, ADHD, and ASD co-occurring with ADHD)

Verb argument structure overgeneralisations for the English intransitive and transitive constructions : grammaticality judgments and production priming

We used a multi-method approach to investigate how children avoid (or retreat from) argument structure overgeneralisation errors (e.g., *You giggled me). Experiment 1 investigated how semantic and statistical constraints (preemption and entrenchment) influence children’s and adults’ judgments of the grammatical acceptability of 120 verbs in transitive and intransitive sentences. Experiment 2 used syntactic priming to elicit overgeneralisation errors from children (aged 5–6) to investigate whether the same constraints operate in production. For judgments, the data showed effects of preemption, entrenchment, and semantics for all ages. For production, only an effect of preemption was observed, and only for transitivisation errors with intransitive-only verbs (e.g., *The man laughed the girl). We conclude that preemption, entrenchment, and semantic effects are real, but are obscured by particular features of the present production task

Population regulation in lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis (Mitchill)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73745/1/j.1095-8649.1981.tb03822.x.pd

Modulation of Early Host Innate Immune Response by an Avipox Vaccine Virus’ Lateral Body Protein

The avian pathogen fowlpox virus (FWPV) has been successfully used as a vaccine vector in poultry and humans, but relatively little is known about its ability to modulate host antiviral immune responses in these hosts, which are replication-permissive and nonpermissive, respectively. FWPV is highly resistant to avian type I interferon (IFN) and able to completely block the host IFN-response. Microarray screening of host IFN-regulated gene expression in cells infected with 59 different, nonessential FWPV gene knockout mutants revealed that FPV184 confers immunomodulatory capacity. We report that the FPV184-knockout virus (FWPVΔ184) induces the cellular IFN response as early as 2 h postinfection. The wild-type, uninduced phenotype can be rescued by transient expression of FPV184 in FWPVΔ184-infected cells. Ectopic expression of FPV184 inhibited polyI:C activation of the chicken IFN-β promoter and IFN-α activation of the chicken Mx1 promoter. Confocal and correlative super-resolution light and electron microscopy demonstrated that FPV184 has a functional nuclear localisation signal domain and is packaged in the lateral bodies of the virions. Taken together, these results provide a paradigm for a late poxvirus structural protein packaged in the lateral bodies, capable of suppressing IFN induction early during the next round of infection