Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (autism) typically have deficits in pragmatic language skills. Adolescence is a time of dynamic social experiences when children form their own social groups and lead independent social lives. This increase in social complexity compared to earlier stages of development makes it even more difficult for children with autism to fit in with their peers. Most of what we know about pragmatic language skills in adolescents with autism is based off standardized assessments and questionnaires. To improve interventions for pragmatic language, we first need to better understand communication processes within the contexts they occur. We examined how the rate of fillers- uh and um- produced by children with autism is related to their visual experience. Fillers (e.g. uh and um) often serve specific pragmatic functions including maintaining control of the conversation and communicating uncertainty. Recent evidence suggests that adolescents with autism produce fillers at a lower rate compared to their typical developing peers, but there is still the question of what mechanism is underlying this difference. In this study we compare the relationship between pragmatic skills and visual experience during social interactions. Participants included six, 7-14 year-old children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Participants were separated into two-person groups engaging in a question-answer game focusing on initiating conversations while wearing a head mounted camera. We coded the first-person video duration of the conversation partner’s hands, body, face, and eyes in the participant’s visual field. We discuss the relationship between visual experience and the production of fillers. Examining this may help us find the underlying mechanism of decreased filler production in children with autism, as it has not been specifically studied in existing literature
