Comparison of Grammar in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: The Case of Binding in Williams Syndrome and Autism With and Without Language Impairment

Abstract

This study investigates whether distinct neurodevelopmental disorders show distinct patterns of impairments in particular grammatical abilities and the relation of those grammatical patterns to general language delays and intellectual disabilities. We studied two disorders (autism and Williams syndrome [WS]) and two distinct properties (Principle A that governs reflexives and Principle B that, together with its associated pragmatic rule, governs pronouns) of the binding module of grammar. These properties are known to have markedly different courses of acquisition in typical development. We compare the knowledge of binding in children with autism with language impairment (ALI) and those with normal language (ALN) to that of children with WS, matched on age to the ALN group, and on age and nonverbal mental age (MA) to the ALI group, as well as to two groups of typically developing (TD) controls, matched on nonverbal MA to ALI and ALN groups. Our results reveal a remarkably different pattern of comprehension of personal pronouns and reflexives in ALI as opposed to ALN, WS, and two groups of TD controls. All five groups demonstrated an equal delay in their comprehension of personal pronouns, in line with widely reported delays in TD literature, argued to be due to delayed pragmatic abilities. However, and most strikingly, the ALI group also showed a pronounced difficulty in comprehension of reflexive pronouns, and particularly of the knowledge that the antecedent of a reflexive must c-command it. The revealed pattern confirms the existence of a particular impairment concerning Principle A in this module of grammar, unrelated to general language delays or cognitive deficits generally present in a large portion of individuals with autism as well as WS, or to general pragmatic deficits, known to be particularly prevalent in the population with autism.

Intact grammar in HFA? Evidence from control and binding

“…Crucially, the 637 first two children qualified as ALI ( autism plus language impairment ) and the third as 638 a border-line ALI, as per their scores on the standardized language assessments. This 639 is again in line with Perovic et al (2013b), whose sample of twenty-six ALI children 640 also showed a chance performance on reflexives, which was interpreted as signaling 641 deficient knowledge of reflexive binding. However, some variability in the performance 642 of children with ALI is also noted here: one child classified as ALI showed a ceiling 643 performance on reflexives.…”

Article choice in children with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

“…These children experience difficulties in the social use of language and are claimed to be pragmatically impaired, just like children with more severe autism spectrum disorders (see Baron-Cohen 1988;Frith 1989;TagerFlusberg 1989;Eigsti, de Marchena, Schuh & Kelley 2011;Loukusa & Moilanen 2009 for reviews). Although grammar has been reported to be mostly spared in this population (Boucher 2009), recent research has shown that some children with autism also have grammatical impairments (Perovic, Modyanova & Wexler 2013a, 2013b. However, researchers agree that the main language impairment of children with autism is pragmatic in nature.…”

Linguistic and Cognitive Abilities in Children with Specific Language Impairment as Compared to Children with High-Functioning Autism

“…Vice versa, children with (high-functioning) autism are described as having "persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction" (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association 2013), suggesting that pragmatics (i.e., the social use of language) is the domain of primary impairment (see Baron-Cohen 1988 andEigsti et al 2011 for reviews). Yet, recent research also indicates difficulties in the grammar of children with autism (e.g., Eigsti & Bennetto 2009;Perovic, Modyanova & Wexler 2013).…”