The COVID-19 pandemic had imposed a variety of containment measures on the general population for prolonged periods. Confinement has had, and still has, social, economic, educational, health, and psychological consequences on the entire population. Objective: In this article, a systematic search has been performed based on studies carried out since the beginning of the pandemic, regarding the impact of these containment measures on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population and their caregivers. Method: We consulted six databases (i.e., PubMed, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct) and selected ten studies that met the inclusion criteria. The chosen studies have been classified according to their theoretical focus, methodology, and target population. Results: We found an increase in stress and a decrease in psychological well-being among individuals diagnosed with ASD (i.e., parents and caregivers). Additionally, in studies focused on children, youth, and adults with ASD diagnosis, the results are contradictory depending on variables such as age, ASD severity, or type of family structure. Conclusions: The results show that the consequences of quarantine and social confinement are quite contradictory and depend on variables such as age, ASD severity, and family features.

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The correct use of punctuation marks in secondary-school students is essential for the comprehension of written texts and, therefore, for the students’ academic success. However, the examination of this issue has often been overlooked in the literature. In the present study, we focused on the progression of comma usage (i.e., a punctuation mark that is often challenging to master) and examined its relation to reading comprehension. A sample of first- and fourth-year secondary-education students from Spain (N = 115) punctuated brief texts in which commas had been previously omitted. The original texts included various types of mandatory commas in Spanish. We also obtained a reading comprehension score from a standardized reading test. Results show that secondary-education students often did not correctly place the commas, with first-year secondary-education students only succeeding in the correct placement of commas 54.5% of the time in (Year 8 in the UK system). This figure increased to 80.9% in fourth-year secondary-education students (Year 11 in the UK system). As a control, this figure rose to 91.5% in first-year university students. Critically, better comprehenders were the ones with better use of punctuation marks (r = 0.33). These results are useful for developing teaching methods to improve writing/reading skills in secondary-school students.

trastornos del lenguaje Textual pragmatics in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: argument Introduction. Clinical linguistics involves a study of linguistic deficits which focuses on a series of aspects that range from strictly formal, grammatical points to the effective and contextualised use of language. Thus, it is also inevitably concerned with the cognitive, i.e. mental, correlate of such language use, whose basic textual dimensions are narration and argument. Aims. To describe the argumentative skills in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to examine their relationship with academic achievement and sociability. Materials and methods. We analysed 79 argumentative texts written by adolescents with ADHD, using a methodology from cognitive linguistics and from theories of argumentation with a dialogical foundation. Results and conclusions. Adolescents with ADHD provided a greater number of arguments than those in the control group, but with a higher predominance of emotional and negative sanction strategies compared with a greater use of fallacious or circular arguments in those in the control group; the difference between the use of rational arguments in the two groups is not significant.

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En el presente estudio, y a partir de los datos del corpus PerLA (compuesto por afasias fluentes y no fluentes), analizamos los elementos pragmáticos con la hipótesis de que dichos aspectos pueden ser utilizados en el diseño de protocolos de rehabilitación logopédica. Trabajamos con datos de validez ecológica grabados en un entorno conocido por el interlocutor afásico, con la presencia de uno de los elementos claves de nuestro estudio: el interlocutor-clave. A la hora de elaborar un corpus debemos tener en cuenta una serie de elementos tales como la elección de los sujetos afásicos a quienes grabaremos, cómo estructurar los datos obtenidos, las condiciones en que se realiza la grabación o cuestiones técnicas relacionadas con la transcripción de dichas conversaciones. Para la elaboración de un protocolo pragmático global analizamos en las grabaciones el IPC (Índice de participación conversacional), los tipos de intervención y los tipos de actos de habla utilizados por el hablante afásico, su longitud media del turno y algunos aspectos gramaticales de especial relevancia.

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