Associations Between Syntax and the Lexicon Among Children With or Without ASD and Language Impairment

Abstract

Five groups of children defined by presence or absence of syntactic deficits and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) took vocabulary tests and provided sentences, definitions, and word associations. Children with ASD who were free of syntactic deficits demonstrated age-appropriate word knowledge. Children with ASD plus concomitant syntactic language impairments (ASDLI) performed similarly to peers with specific language impairment (SLI) and both demonstrated sparse lexicons characterized by partial word knowledge and immature knowledge of word-to-word relationships. This behavioral overlap speaks to the robustness of the syntax–lexicon interface and points to a similarity in the ASDLI and SLI phenotypes.

Appendix

Sentence Formulation Procedures

Task Instructions, Models, and Prompts

I’m going to say a word and your job is to put it in a sentence. Like if I said “dog” you might say, “The spotted dog hunted cats in the neighborhood,” or if I said “memorize” you could say, “The student memorized the answers on the test.” Do you have the idea of what to do? OK, the first word is…

Examiner’s Note: Prompt for the child to think of a different type of the word if they respond with the wrong word class.

Scoring Guidelines with Examples

Sentences were scored according to number of clauses. A clause was defined by the occurrence of a main verb. Each sentence was analyzed if it included a verb and the target word used as the targeted word class.

Example sentence in response to purpose with verbs underlined:

“The mom that picks up (her) the kids says “What’s the purpose of running away from school without getting your food”? = 5 clauses

Definition Procedures

Task Instructions, Models, and Prompts

I’m going to say some words. Your job is to tell me what each word means. For example, if I said “dog” you might say, “it’s an animal, it has fur and a tail and four legs, and for example a poodle is a dog.” If I said “memorize” you might say, “when you memorize something you try to remember it forever, like you might memorize your phone number.” You have the idea, right? OK, your first word is….. (Note: Prompt for the child to think of a different type of the word if they respond to the wrong word class.)

Scoring Guidelines with Examples

• 0- No correct information.

  • Worship: It’s when you sell something, like hand-me-downs.

  • Origin: The state “origin”.

• 1- Information is at least partially correct but definition is not conventional.

  • Believe: Would faith be kinda like believing? You can believe in different religions, and different kinds of stuff like deodorant.

  • Mystery: Like the mystery of the disappearing sock, like my disappearing sock that I found in my sock drawer under my underwear.

• 2- Information is correct and conventional but minimal.

  • Stretch: To make longer.

  • Chair: Chairs are things that people sit on.

• 3- Information is correct, conventional, and well elaborated.

  • Worship: Praise something, like the Lord, or football, or statues.

  • Stretch: Pulling something so that it expands; you can stretch a rubber band.

Word Association Procedures

Task Instructions, Models, and Prompts

I’m going to say some words. As soon as I say each word, I want you to say the first word you think of, and your answer can only be one word. For example, what is the first word you think of when I say “dog” (praise answer) Yes, you could say “bone, or barks, or cat,” all of those things come to mind when we hear dog, right? What about “memorize”? You could say “answer, hard, or test,” because all of those things come to mind when we hear memorize. Do you have the idea of what to do? OK, the first word is… (Note: If the child responds with rhymes, direct him/her away, “In this activity, we aren’t interested in rhyming so you don’t need to make rhymes,” and if the child gives the same word or near inflection prompt for another word. Also, prompt for one word responses and responses to the correct word class.)

Scoring Guidelines with Examples

• 0- No discernable relationship.

  • chair: toy

  • consider: done

• 1- The relationship is minimal in that it is idiosyncratic, syntactic, or derivational.

  • love: you

  • health: healthy

• 2- The relationship is thematic.

  • table: dinner

  • love: family

• 3- The relationship is paradigmatic-taxonomic.

  • coin: money

  • love: hate