Factors affecting responses of children with autism spectrum disorder to yes/no questions

Interviewing alleged victims with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities and autism: A field study of police‐investigated cases of physical and sexual abuse in a Norwegian national sample

“…The results of this study further show that the investigative interviewers relied heavily on yes/no questions. This type of question is challenging because PWID and PWA with cognitive delays strive to answer such questions due to their susceptibility to acquiescence (Finlay and Lyons 2002;Funazaki and Oi 2013). Some studies, however, suggest that PWA without cognitive delays provided more adequate responses to yes/no questions compared with direct questions (Oi 2010).…”

“…Tully andCahill 1984, cited in Gudjonsson 2003), increased responsiveness to yes/no questions and their susceptibility to acquiescence (yea-saying) (Finlay and Lyons 2002;Gudjonsson and Joyce 2011;Stancliffe et al 2015). Scholars suggest that yes/no questions might be challenging for PWID due to suggestibility, complex language and the type of judgements that these types of questions require (Finlay and Lyons 2002;Funazaki and Oi 2013). Suggestibility in terms of giving in to suggestive questions and coping with interrogative pressure may be challenging for PWID, partly due to their reduced or impaired memory capacity (Gudjonsson and Henry 2003;Henry et al 2017).…”

Children’s answering of yes-no questions: A review of research including particular consideration of the relational evaluation procedure.

“…For example, the more complex the Y/N-Q and the more unfamiliar the vocabulary or topic, the more likely that echolalia will occur instead of a yes or no response (Charlop, 1986; Roberts, 1989; Rydell & Mirenda, 1994). In addition, Oi and colleagues examined the ability of high functioning ASD children in relation to Y/N-Qs and found (a) that they could clearly answer simple Y/N-Qs by age 7, whereas lower-functioning ASD children could not; (b) that they were better able to answer Y/N-Q than “wh” questions; and (c) that they had more difficulty answering Y/N-Qs than their typically developing counterparts (Oi, 2010; Funazaki & Oi, 2013).…”