Temporarily Out of Order:Temporal Perspective Taking in Language in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Clinical reports suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with time perception, but few studies have investigated this. This is the first study to examine these children’s understanding of before and after. These temporal conjunctions have been argued to require additional cognitive effort when conjoining two events in a clause order that is incongruent with their order in time. Given the suggested time perception impairment and well-established cognitive deficits of children with ASD, we expected them to have difficulties interpreting temporal conjunctions, especially in an incongruent order. To investigate this, the interpretation of before and after in congruent and incongruent orders was examined in 48 children with ASD and 43 typically developing (TD) children (age 6–12). Additional tasks were administered to measure Theory of Mind (ToM), working memory (WM), cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, IQ, and verbal ability. We found that children with ASD were less accurate in their interpretation of temporal conjunctions than their TD peers. Contrary to our expectations, they did not have particular difficulties in an incongruent order. Furthermore, older children showed better overall performance than younger children. The difference between children with ASD and TD children was explained by WM, ToM, IQ, and verbal ability, but not by cognitive inhibition and flexibility. These cognitive functions are more likely to be impaired in children with ASD than in TD children, which could account for their poorer performance. Thus, the cognitive factors found to affect the interpretation of temporal language in children with ASD are likely to apply in typical development as well. Sufficient WM capacity and verbal ability may help children to process complex sentences conjoined by a temporal conjunction. Additionally, ToM understanding was found to be related to children’s interpretation of temporal conjunctions in an incongruent order, indicating that perspective taking is required when events are presented out of order. We conclude from this that perspective-taking abilities are needed for the interpretation of temporal conjunctions, either to shift one’s own perspective as a hearer to another point in time, or to shift to the perspective of the speaker to consider the speaker’s linguistic choices

Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers.

Learners of most languages are faced with the task of acquiring words to talk about number and quantity. Much is known about the order of acquisition of number words as well as the cognitive and perceptual systems and cultural practices that shape it. Substantially less is known about the acquisition of quantifiers. Here, we consider the extent to which systems and practices that support number word acquisition can be applied to quantifier acquisition and conclude that the two domains are largely distinct in this respect. Consequently, we hypothesize that the acquisition of quantifiers is constrained by a set of factors related to each quantifier's specific meaning. We investigate competence with the expressions for "all," "none," "some," "some…not," and "most" in 31 languages, representing 11 language types, by testing 768 5-y-old children and 536 adults. We found a cross-linguistically similar order of acquisition of quantifiers, explicable in terms of four factors relating to their meaning and use. In addition, exploratory analyses reveal that language- and learner-specific factors, such as negative concord and gender, are significant predictors of variation.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the National Academy of Sciences via http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.160134111

Language comprehension and theory of mind in children with autism

Om taal goed te begrijpen, moet je de intentie van de spreker achterhalen. Dit kun je doen door je in het perspectief van de spreker te verplaatsen. De vraag is hoe goed kinderen met een autismespectrumstoornis (ASS) hiertoe in staat zijn. Om deze vraag te beantwoorden, zijn bij 48 kinderen met ASS en 43 kinderen zonder ASS tussen de 6 en 12 jaar oud een drietal taalbegripstaken en enkele algemene cognitieve taken afgenomen. Met twee theory of mind (ToM) taken werd hun vermogen onderzocht om gedachten en intenties toe te schrijven aan anderen. Kinderen met ASS blijken minder goed te presteren op de ToM-taken dan kinderen zonder ASS en dit verschil kon niet volledig worden verklaard door hun minder goede cognitieve vaardigheden. Dit duidt erop dat kinderen met ASS fundamentele problemen hebben met ToM. Kinderen met ASS blijken ook meer fouten te maken dan kinderen zonder ASS in het begrip van persoonlijke voornaamwoorden en voegwoorden van tijd. Een beter begrip van deze woorden bleek bovendien samen te hangen met betere ToM-vaardigheden. Hieruit concluderen we dat sommige problemen van kinderen met ASS met taal en communicatie gerelateerd zijn aan hun problemen met perspectiefname om de intentie van een ander te begrijpen. We vonden deze relatie ook ten aanzien van het begrip van de persoonlijke voornaamwoorden ik en jij. Dit suggereert dat omdraaiing van persoonlijke voornaamwoorden niet zozeer een vorm is van beperkt en stereotiep gedrag, zoals de DSM‑5 beschrijft, maar eerder een probleem in de sociale communicatie

Children with autism spectrum disorder show pronoun reversals in interpretation

Pronoun reversals, saying you when meaning I, in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are generally viewed as manifesting in early development and speech production only. This study investigates pronoun reversals in later development (age 6–12) in interpretation in 48 Dutch-speaking children with ASD and 43 typically developing (TD) peers. We contrasted children’s interpretation of I and you in indirect and direct speech reports, with the latter type requiring an additional perspective shift. To examine which cognitive processes are involved in pronoun interpretation, additional tasks were administered to measure Theory of Mind (ToM) understanding, cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. We found that children with ASD showed more problems than TD children interpreting pronouns in direct speech, resulting in pronoun reversals in interpretation. Children with ASD hardly improved with age. Older children with ASD thus showed more pronoun reversals than did their TD peers. ToM understanding, working memory, IQ, and verbal ability, but not inhibition and flexibility, were associated with pronoun interpretation. ToM understanding in particular was associated with correct pronoun interpretation in older TD children relative to younger TD children, but this improvement was not found in children with ASD. These findings indicate that pronoun reversals most likely result from perspective-shifting difficulties. We conclude that pronoun reversals are more pronounced in individuals with ASD, occur beyond early development, and require sufficient cognitive resources. The relation with ToM understanding, but not inhibition and flexibility, suggests that pronoun reversals are best classified as a social communication problem in the diagnosis of ASD

Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Show Pronoun Reversals in Interpretation (2018) (vol 127, pg 228, 2018)

Reports an error in "Children with autism spectrum disorder show pronoun reversals in interpretation" by Jessica Overweg, Catharina A. Hartman and Petra Hendriks (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2018[Feb], Vol 127[2], 228-238). In the article there is an error in Figure 2. The Dutch sentence “Varken zei dat hij de auto krijgt” should be “Varken zei dat ik de auto krijg” (with the first-person pronoun “ik” instead of the third-person pronoun “hij” and the first-person inflected verb “krijg” instead of the third-person inflected verb “krijgt”). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2018-09964-009.) Pronoun reversals, saying you when meaning I, in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are generally viewed as manifesting in early development and speech production only. This study investigates pronoun reversals in later development (age 6–12) in interpretation in 48 Dutch-speaking children with ASD and 43 typically developing (TD) peers. We contrasted children’s interpretation of I and you in indirect and direct speech reports, with the latter type requiring an additional perspective shift. To examine which cognitive processes are involved in pronoun interpretation, additional tasks were administered to measure Theory of Mind (ToM) understanding, cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. We found that children with ASD showed more problems than TD children interpreting pronouns in direct speech, resulting in pronoun reversals in interpretation. Children with ASD hardly improved with age. Older children with ASD thus showed more pronoun reversals than did their TD peers. ToM understanding, working memory, IQ, and verbal ability, but not inhibition and flexibility, were associated with pronoun interpretation. ToM understanding in particular was associated with correct pronoun interpretation in older TD children relative to younger TD children, but this improvement was not found in children with ASD. These findings indicate that pronoun reversals most likely result from perspective-shifting difficulties. We conclude that pronoun reversals are more pronounced in individuals with ASD, occur beyond early development, and require sufficient cognitive resources. The relation with ToM understanding, but not inhibition and flexibility, suggests that pronoun reversals are best classified as a social communication problem in the diagnosis of ASD