Abstract
There are few well-standardized measures of conversational breakdown in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The study's objective was to develop a scale for measuring pragmatic impairments in conversations of individuals with ASD. We analyzed 46 semi-structured conversations of children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD using a functional linguistic paradigm. Five constructs were developed that assessed difficulties related to the pragmatics of conversation: atypical intonation; semantic drift; terseness; pedantic speech; perseveration. The scale shows good inter-rater reliability and variation in the scales is not simply a reflection of IQ or language competence. This tool represents a way of characterizing language use in ASD and is an initial step towards developing a tool to evaluate change in degree of social impairments in conversation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1375-1380 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2007 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgments This research was supported by grants from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation and by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant to J. de Villiers. We want to thank the children and families who participated in this project.
Funding
Acknowledgments This research was supported by grants from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation and by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant to J. de Villiers. We want to thank the children and families who participated in this project.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada | |
| Ontario Mental Health Foundation |
Keywords
- ASD
- Asperger syndrome
- Conversation
- Linguistic analysis
- Pragmatic difficulties