Reward value of prosodic features of language for autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children

Abstract

The present study pursued hypotheses relevant to prosodic abnormalities in the expressive language of autistic children. An operant paradigm was employed to measure the intrinsic reinforcing value of a verbally presented story for autistic, mentally retarded, and normal groups controlling for chronological age and performance mental age. Results suggested that both autistic and mentally retarded children could perceive prosodic cues, although only mentally retarded children are able to use them in their expressive language. It was also suggested that linguistic stimuli may have less intrinsic reinforcement value for autistic and mentally retarded children than for normal children. Implications for future research and treatment were discussed.

Linguistic Tone and Non-Linguistic Pitch Imitation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Cross-Linguistic Investigation

“…Moreover, even for the imitation of the covert contrast of the inflection points of CT23 vs. CT25, which was a reliable acoustic difference not perceivable by naïve speakers (Edwards & Beckman, 2008), all the child 20 participants, including the MASD, correctly produced an earlier inflection point for CT25 than CT23. Our current findings offered strong supports to the notion that the echoed speech by children with ASD could imitate complex tonal contours from the adult models accurately in a preserved manner (Fan et al, 2010;Frankel et al, 1987). Such imitation skills seemed to be unaffected by the linguistic status of children with ASD, as a lack of interaction effect of group × language in all the acoustic analyses.…”

“…Some researchers proposed that children with ASD could not accurately imitate the prosodic patterns of adult models (Diehl & Paul, 2012;Fosnot & Jun, 1999;Hubbard & Trauner, 2007;Peppé et al, 2011). On the other hand, others claimed that children with ASD could imitate the tone of voice and rhythm of other speakers as well as TD children (Fan et al, 2010;Frankel et al, 1987). Since the complex tonal system of Cantonese contains fine-grained pitch differences regarding both pitch height and direction, imitation of CT in both Cantonese-and Mandarin-speaking children with ASD offers a valuable chance to evaluate the imitation abilities in children with ASD, and to further illustrate how such performance changes as a function of language experience.…”

Prosody in autism spectrum disorders: a critical review

“…In experiments investigating this, however, auditory memory skills must also be considered. Frankel et al (1987) Frankel et al used an operant reinforcement paradigm to investigate the reward value of prosodic features for different groups of children. Participants were four groups of eight children: one with autism (in line with DSM-III criteria); one with learning difficulties ('mentally retarded'), matched to the group with autism for chronological age and mental age; and two groups of typically developing children, one matched to the two experimental groups for mental age and the other for chronological age.…”