[WS112] Language and Mind in Autism

 

Authors: Stephanie Durrleman, Hélène Delage, Laurice Tuller, Philippe Prévost, Ira Noveck

Title: Language and Mind In Autism

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by a triad of impairments including delays and deficits in language. Research on language impairment in autism has given vast importance to explaining pragmatic deficits, (e.g. Happé 1993; 1995; Baron-Cohen 1997, Reddy et al. 2002; Frith 2003) as well as their connection to the development of cognitive abilities such as theory of mind (ToM) (Frith 1989, Baron-Cohen 1995). ToM has also been proposed to influence other language skills such as lexical development (Happé 1995) and prosody (Baron-Cohen 1995). Still, studies outside the realm of pragmatics in autism are relatively rare. Indeed “the emphasis on the pragmatic language impairment in autism has led to a relative neglect of other linguistic deficits that are found in most individuals with this disorder” (Tager-Flusberg 2000, emphasis ours).

Among the understudied areas is syntactic development. Interestingly, recent work on syntax in autism suggests that it may play a role in the very development of ToM because syntax has been found to be the strongest predictor of ToM abilities in this population (Paynter and Peterson 2010), in particular the ability to use and understand complement clauses (Tager-Flusberg 2001, Tager-Flusberg & Joseph 2005, Lind & Bowler 2009). In turn it has been proposed that syntactic skills in autism are related to working memory capacities (Eigsti 2009). However the nature of syntactic development remains to be better understood. Despite some reports that specific syntactic structures are affected in groups of individuals with this condition (e.g. Kjelgaard & Tager-Flusberg 2001, Roberts et al. 2004, Perovic et al. 2007, in press, Durrleman & Zufferey 2011, Tuller et al 2011) there are still relatively “few studies [which] have examined grammatical abilities in autism, with mixed findings” (Eigsti et al 2007).

With the workshop 'Language and Mind in Autism', our objective is to contribute to repairing this lacuna through the gathering of experts and new researchers exploring (1) grammatical development (Delay / deviance; Differences/ similarities to other language impaired children) and (2) its connections to other cognitive abilities (e.g. theory of mind, working memory, executive functioning, non-verbal intelligence, etc). We welcome abstracts on these topics. See instructions for abstract submissions below.

Workshop Format

The workshop will consist of four two-hour sessions. Each session includes an invited talk (45 minutes followed by 10 minutes discussion), two oral presentations (20 minutes followed by 10 minutes discussion).  Guest speakers include Alexandra Perovic (in collaboration with Kenneth Wexler), Jill de Villiers (in collaboration with Peter de Villiers), Helen Tager-Flusberg (cancelled), Inge-Marie Eigsti and Anne Reboul.

 

 

References

Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: an essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, The MIT Press.

Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). "Hey! It was just a joke! Understanding propositions and propositional attitudes by normally developing children, and children with autism." Israel journal of psychiatry 37: 174-178.

Durrleman and Zufferey (2011) ‘Investigating Syntactic Impairment in Autism’, talk given at ‘Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA)’, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Eigsti, I.-M., (2009) Syntax and Working Memory in Preschool Children with Autism Lap Lambert Academic Pub, UK.

Eigsti, I.-M., L. Bennetto, et al. (2007). "Beyond pragmatics: morphosyntactic development in autism." Journal of autism and developemental disorders 37: 107-1023.

Frith, U. (1989). Autism and Theory of Mind. Diagnosis and Treatment of Autism. pp.33-52). Plenum Div Press Plenum Publishing Corp.

Frith, U. (2003). Autism: explaining the enigma. Oxford, Blackwell.

Happé, F. (1993). "Communicative competence and theory of mind in autism: a test for relevance theory." Cognition 48: 101-119.

Happé, F. (1995). "Understanding minds and metaphors: insights from the study of figurative language in autism." Metaphor and symbolic activity 10(4): 275-295.

Kjelgaard, M. and H. Tager-Flusberg (2001). "An investigation of language impairment in autism: implications for genetic subgroups." Language and cognitive processes 16: 287-308.

Lind, S. E. & Bowler, D. M. (2009)  'Language and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder: The relationship between complement syntax and false belief task performance’, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(6), 929-937. 

Paynter, J., & Peterson, C. C. (2010). Language and ToM development in autism versus Asperger Syndrome: Contrasting influences of syntactic versus lexical/semantic maturity. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders4, 377-385.

Perovic, A. et al (2007) Investigations of language in autism: Evidence for a grammatical deficiency. Poster presented at Autism Research in the UK: From Diagnosis to Intervention. The Open University, UK.

Perovic, A. et al (in press) ‘Comprehension of reflexive and personal pronouns in children with autism: a syntactic or pragmatic deficit?’ in Applied Psycholinguistics.

Reddy, V., E. Williams, et al. (2002). "Sharing humour and laughter in autism and Down's syndrome." British journal of psychology 93(2): 219-242.

Roberts, J., M. Rice, & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2004). "Tense marking in children with autism." Applied psycholinguistics 25: 429-448.

Tager-Flusberg, H. (2000). Language and understanding minds: connections in autism. Understanding other minds. Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience. S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg and D. Cohen. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 124-149.

Tager-Flusberg, H. (2001). "Understanding the language and communicative impairments in autism." International Review of Research in Mental Retardation 23: 185-205.

Tager-Flusberg, H. and R. Joseph (2005). How language facilitates the acquisition of false-belief understanding in children with autism. Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind. J. Astington and J. Baird. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 298-318.

Tuller, L., Prévost, P., Morin, E. & Zebib R. (2011). Formal language impairment in French-speaking Children with ASD: A comparative ASD/SLI study. Talk, GALA 2011, Tessalonikki.

25.07.2013   10:30-12:30

Title: Comparing the language profiles of autism and SLI
Chair: Arhonto Terzi

10:30 - 11:30 Philippe PRÉVOST
Production and comprehension of wh-questions in French-speaking children: A comparison between ASD and SLI
> read abstract...
11:30 - 12:00 Hélène DELAGE et al.
SLI dyslexia autism: Do the syntactic profiles overlap?
> read abstract...
12:00 - 12:30 Philippe PRÉVOST
Formal aspects of the language of French-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: the effect of computational complexity
> read abstract...

25.07.2013   14:00-16:00

Title: Theory of Mind and grammatical aspects of language development
Chair: Napoleon Katsos

14:00 - 15:00 Jill DE VILLIERS et al.
Language and Theory of Mind in High-functioning Children with Autism: Evidence from Grammar and Pragmatics
> read abstract...
15:00 - 15:30 Stephanie DURRLEMAN et al.
Syntax Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning in Autism: Revisiting the Links
> read abstract...
15:30 - 16:00 all et al.
Poster Session
15:30 - 16:00 Camelia DASCALU
(poster in workshop)
Self-reference perspective taking and theory of mind in autistic children: The case of two French-speaking autistic children
> read abstract...
15:30 - 16:00 Caroline MASSON
(poster in workshop)
Prelinguistic vocalizations of an infant with autism from 9 to 12 months: observing risk factors of speech disorder in canonical babbling stage?
> read abstract...
15:30 - 16:00 Kleanthes K. GROHMANN et al.
(poster in workshop)
A Case Study on Lexical and Morphosyntactic Skills in Multilingual Autism
> read abstract...
15:30 - 16:00 Pia NORDGREN
(poster in workshop)
Attention in terms of response time in one child with autism spectrum disorders
> read abstract...
15:30 - 16:00 Yhara FORMISANO
(poster in workshop)
Implicit meaning comprehension in autism spectrum disorders
> read abstract...

25.07.2013   16:30-18:30

Title: From low-level to high-level language skills
Chair: Jill de Villiers

16:30 - 17:30 Inge-Marie EIGSTI
From low to high: Simple processes and complex sociocommunicative difficulties in the autism spectrum disorders
> read abstract...
17:30 - 18:00 Martina KRUGER et al.
Production and Perception of Information Structure in Patients with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome
> read abstract...
18:00 - 18:30 Stephanie DURRLEMAN & Hélène DELAGE
Aperitif

26.07.2013   10:30-12:30

Title: Theory of mind and pragmatic aspects of language development
Chair: Inge-Marie Eigsti

10:30 - 11:30 Anne REBOUL
At the interface between language and cognition: the pragmatic abilities of autistic people
> read abstract...
11:30 - 12:00 Napoleon KATSOS et al.
Pragmatic competence of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: is there a link with grammatical competence?
> read abstract...
12:00 - 12:30 Aaron SHIELD
Spatial Grammar Constructions in Deaf Signing Children with Autism
> read abstract...

26.07.2013   14:00-16:00

Title: Grammatical deficits in ASD: Crosslinguistic evidence
Chair: Stéphanie Durrleman & Hélène Delage

14:00 - 14:30 Marie-Thérèse LE NORMAND et al.
Atypical production of grammatical knowledge in French children with autism
> read abstract...
14:30 - 15:00 Letitia NAIGLES
Grammatical strengths and weaknesses in children with autism: Multiple comparisons of comprehension and production across development
> read abstract...
15:00 - 15:30 Arhonto TERZI et al.
Grammatical abilities of high functioning Greek-speaking children with ASD
> read abstract...

Posters

Camelia DASCALU
Self-reference perspective taking and theory of mind in autistic children: The case of two French-speaking autistic children
> read abstract...
Caroline MASSON
Prelinguistic vocalizations of an infant with autism from 9 to 12 months: observing risk factors of speech disorder in canonical babbling stage?
> read abstract...
Kleanthes K. GROHMANN et al.
A Case Study on Lexical and Morphosyntactic Skills in Multilingual Autism
> read abstract...
Pia NORDGREN
Attention in terms of response time in one child with autism spectrum disorders
> read abstract...
Yhara FORMISANO
Implicit meaning comprehension in autism spectrum disorders
> read abstract...