Speech Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorders

1
Listen, My Children and you shall hear Speech
perception in ASD
Rhea Paul, Ph.D., Katarzyna Chawarska, Ph.D.,
Fred Volkmar, Ph.D. Yale University Child Study
Center
Introduction
Participants
Results, continued
Correlational Results

• Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
  are
• known to have delayed language development and
  poor auditory attention
• show differences in attention and orienting to
  speech
• these are often the first developmental concern
  for parents.
• Typically developing older infants
• prefer speech to other sounds
• prefer speech with pauses that occur at
  grammatical boundaries.
• prefer words with the stress pattern predominant
  in their native language
• These preferences for sounds of the native
  language are thought to contribute to language
  development.
• ?Therefore, we hypothesize that failure to show
  these auditory preferences will be related to
  slower language learning.
• This study examined patterns of auditory
  preferences, using the Preferential Head Turn
  Paradigm,1
• for speech-like stimuli in
• toddlers with ASD, and
• matched groups of
• typical age mates, and
• a younger group of TD children matched for
  language age.

All children were seen at the Yale Child Study
Center Developmental Disabilities Clinic for a
multi-disciplinary evaluation as part of a larger
research protocol studying early diagnosis and
description of ASD. Subject Description
Results
Conclusions

• Children in the ASD group showed a preference
  for natural over rotated speech, but this was
  less strong that the preference shown by either
  of the TD groups.
• Age-matched TDs had a stronger preference for
  natural speech.
• In addition they showed a preference for speech
  with pauses inserted at grammatical boundaries.
• Language-matched TDs likewise showed a stronger
  preference for natural speech than Ss w/ ASD.
  BUT
• They did not show a preference for grammatical
  pauses,
• Instead, they did demonstrate a preference for
  the predominant English stress pattern in words.
• For ASDs ONLY time spent oriented to natural
  speech is significantly correlated with
  concurrent receptive language skill.
• Moreover, for the 23 ASDs followed up one year
  later, significant correlations are also seen
  between time spent oriented to natural speech
  and
• expressive language
• receptive language
• adaptive use of language for communication.2

Toddlers with ASD show reduced preference for
natural speech relative to TD controls. Younger,
language-matched children showed a preference for
words with the predominant stress pattern of
their native language at the point in development
when they are acquiring single word
vocabularies. Age-mates with TD showed a
preference for speech with pauses at grammatical
boundaries at the point in development when they
are beginning to acquire grammar. Children with
ASD showed neither of these developmentally-tuned
preferences. Time spent listening to natural
speech by children with ASD was correlated with
their concurrent receptive language ability, and
to language and communication abilities a year
later. Thus auditory preference behavior in ASD
appears to be related to language development.
Hypotheses

• 1. Children with ASD will show atypical patterns
  of auditory preference for
• natural motherese speech vs. the same signal
  electronically rotated, so it sounds like
  nonspeech
• speech with pauses that occur at grammatical
  boundaries, as opposed to pauses inserted at
  non-grammatical points, inside phrases
• words with the stress pattern of English, as
  opposed to those with an aypical stress pattern
  for English.
• when compared with both typical age mates and
  language-matched younger children.
• 2. These patterns of preference will be related
  to language development at a one-year follow-up.

Notes

• Nelson, D., Jusczyk, P. Mandel, D. Myers, J.
  (1995). The head-turn preference procedure for
  testing auditory perception. Infant Behavior
  Development, 18, 111-116.
• Sparrow, S., Balla, D., Cicchetti, D. (1984).
  Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Circle Pines,
  MN AGS.