Object Engagement, Lexical Organization, and Word Learning in Children with Autism
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Date
2016-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The shape bias is the tendency to extend the names of object on the basis of shape rather than other attributes of the object such as size, color, or texture. Emergence of the shape bias is associated with rapid vocabulary acquisition in toddlers with typical development. Unlike typically-developing toddlers, young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not demonstrate a shape bias even after achieving sizeable lexicons. This suggests a disassociation between vocabulary learning and lexical organization in children with ASD. We hypothesize that children with ASD fail to develop a shape bias because their atypical engagement with objects (e.g., fixating on a specific feature of the object) does not provide children with the relevant statistical cues necessary to support emergence of the shape bias. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between object engagement, word learning, and lexical organization in young children with ASD to further understand whether the disassociation between lexical organization and vocabulary is due to atypical object exploration. Children between 2 to 5 ½ years of age with and without a diagnosis of autism will participate in a word learning experiment where they will be taught the name of two novel objects. Receptive and expressive testing as well as a word extension task will immediately follow teaching in order to determine (a) whether the child learned the names of the objects, and (b) how the child generalizes object names (e.g., color or shape). Behavioral data will be collected using direct (e.g., pointing to the named object) and indirect measures (e.g., eye coding data). Data collection is ongoing, however it is expected that children with ASD who display atypical object engagement will not display a shape bias. The results of this study will be used to inform intervention in young children with ASD.
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Keywords
Autism, Word Learning, Object Engagement, Lexical Organization