Lexical organization in children with autism.
Item
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Title
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Lexical organization in children with autism.
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Identifier
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AAI3127870
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identifier
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3127870
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Creator
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Gerenser, Joanne.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Richard G. Schwartz
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Health Sciences, Speech Pathology
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Abstract
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The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of lexical organization and representation in children with autism. To date, this issue of whether children with autism are different in their lexical development and organization remains unclear, with conflicting findings in the research. Fifteen typically developing children (aged 6:2 to 11:2) and fifteen high functioning children with autism (6:2 to 12:3) participated in this study. The groups were matched on receptive vocabulary age (PPVT-R). The participants named pictures within four different priming conditions (identity, rhyme, categorical, associative). PRTLAB (Swinney, 1995), a computer program which displays pictures on a monitor and records response time was used to run this experiment. Hierarchical linear modeling procedures were used to test the significance of the results. The results revealed a significant main effect for the identity priming condition with both groups of children naming pictures in this condition significantly faster than the neutral condition. In the associate condition, the typical children demonstrated a significant facilitory effect, while the children with autism did not. Neither of the other conditions resulted in any significant priming effects for either group. An analysis of naming responses and errors revealed a different pattern between the two groups. The typically developing children made more prime related responses. The children with autism made more unrelated and non-informative responses. The results provide evidence for differences in lexical organization in children with autism when compared to typically developing children. These findings have implications with regard to assessment of vocabulary as well as intervention for children with autism.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
