Brugia Malayi - Clark Science Center - Smith College

Pragmatics in Children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders
Jacqueline Baron
As a continuation of the work done regarding language pragmatics in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD),
particularly that currently being conducted by Peter de Villiers, we examined videos of young children with high functioning
ASD for elements of their social use of language, particularly regarding contingency, or relevance of speech to the conversation,
with the goal of one day creating a pragmatics assessment for children with ASD. We transcribed videos of children between
the ages of 3;11 and 7;11 who have been diagnosed with an ASD but demonstrate no significant language delay interacting oneon-one
with a parent in a room with toys and other materials. Several of these children were filmed again a year later, and we
began transcribing those videos as well. At the time, or times, when they were filmed, the children were tested on oral language
expression, language comprehension, verbal IQ, and nonverbal IQ.
Though we are still in the process of transcribing the videos, once that is complete we will analyze the transcripts of these
interactions on several dimensions. First, we will code each transcript using the Index of Productive Syntax, or IPSyn. The IPSyn
looks at the frequency with which 56 different linguistic forms of varying complexity are used in a given speech sample. It looks
at four categories of forms: nouns, verbs, questions and negations, and sentence structure. Additionally, we will be examining the
children’s contingency in their conversational speech—that is, whether or not things the child says directly relates to what was said
immediately before—using the coding scheme developed by Tager-Flusberg and Anderson. 1
As we have not yet reached the point of coding or analyzing data, it is difficult to draw conclusions at this time. Through this
research, however, we hope to gain a better understanding of what factors are related to conversational contingency in children
with ASD. We will look at possible relationships between conversational contingency and IPSyn scores, oral language expression
scores, language comprehension scores, and verbal and nonverbal IQ scores. Ultimately, these results will give us a clearer picture
of the significance of conversational contingency and the deficits that lie therein for children with high-functioning autism. What
we have accomplished so far has been shared with students from Wesleyan University, Wellesley College, and Barnard College at
an informal developmental psychology conference at Wesleyan University. (Supported by the Frances Baker Holmes Fund)
Advisor: Peter de Villiers
References:
1
Tager-Flusberg, H. & Anderson, M. 1991. The development of contingent discourse ability in autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32:
1123-34.
2012
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