Children with ASD can use gaze in support of word recognition and learning

Abstract

Background Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle to understand familiar words and learn unfamiliar words. We explored the extent to which these problems reflect deficient use of probabilistic gaze in the extra-linguistic context. Method Thirty children with ASD and 43 with typical development (TD) participated in a spoken word recognition and mapping task. They viewed photographs of a woman behind three objects and simultaneously heard a word. For word recognition, the objects and words were familiar and the woman gazed ahead (neutral), toward the named object (facilitative), or toward an un-named object (contradictory). For word mapping, the objects and words were unfamiliar and only the neutral and facilitative conditions were employed. The children clicked on the named object, registering accuracy and reaction time. Results Speed of word recognition did not differ between groups but varied with gaze such that responses were fastest in the facilitative condition and slowest in the contradictory condition. Only the ASD group responded slower to low frequency than high-frequency words. Accuracy of word mapping did not differ between groups, but accuracy varied with gaze with higher performance in the facilitative than neutral condition. Both groups scored above single-trial chance levels in the neutral condition by tracking cross-situational information. Only in the ASD group did mapping vary with receptive vocabulary. Conclusions Under laboratory conditions, children with ASD can monitor gaze and judge its reliability as a cue to word meaning as well as typical peers. The use of cross-situational statistics to support word learning may be problematic for those who have weak language abilities.

The integrity of lexical acquisition mechanisms in autism spectrum disorders: A research review

“…In a follow‐up study using the same experimental design with younger, higher‐functioning children with ASD, Luyster and Lord [] found that children with ASD were able to use the speaker's direction of gaze in a word‐learning task. This ability has since been confirmed across a range of paradigms, with a range of age groups and language abilities, though most studied individuals have been relatively high‐functioning [Akechi et al, ; Akechi, Kikuchi, Tojo, Osanai, & Hasegawa, ; Aldaqre, Paulus, & Sodian ; Franken et al, ; Hani, Gonzalez‐Barrero, & Nadig, ; McGregor, Rost, Arenas, Farris‐Trimble, & Stiles ; Norbury, Griffiths, & Nation, ].…”

Effect of Speaker Gaze on Word Learning in Fragile X Syndrome: A Comparison With Nonsyndromic Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…A number of studies have used fast-mapping paradigms to examine the ways in which children with nonsyndromic ASD use social cues to learn words when there is ambiguity about the referent of a novel label (Luyster & Lord, 2009;McDuffie et al, 2006;McGregor, Rost, Arenas, Farris-Trimble, & Stiles, 2013;Walton & Ingersoll, 2013). Fast mapping is the term for an associative learning process, based on temporal contiguity, in which two units of information (e.g., a label and an object) are linked in memory after one or very few exposures (Carey & Bartlett, 1978).…”

Statistical word learning in children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment

“…Specifically, some children have reduced breadth of word knowledge (Kjelgaard & Tager‐Flusberg, ) and many children with ASD have limited depth of word knowledge (McGregor et al., ). Although children with ASD demonstrate use of learning mechanisms such as cross‐situational learning (McGregor, Rost, Arenas, Farris‐Trimble, & Stiles, ) and mutual exclusivity (de Marchena, Eigsti, Worek, Ono, & Snedeker, ), they have been found to not use others, like shape bias (Tek, Jaffery, Fein, & Naigles, ). Furthermore, studies have indicated that when children with ASD learn new words, they encode new phonological forms of words, but less‐readily integrate phonological information (Henderson, Powell, Gareth Gaskell, & Norbury, ) and/or less‐readily consolidate new word knowledge (Norbury, Griffiths, & Nation, ) over extended periods of time.…”