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Brief Report: Children on the Autism Spectrum are Challenged by Complex Word Meanings

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Brief Report: Children on the Autism Spectrum are Challenged by Complex Word Meanings
Language: English
Authors: Floyd, Sammy (ORCID 0000-0003-2011-9191), Jeppsen, Charlotte, Goldberg, Adele E.
Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Jul 2021 51(7):2543-2549.
Availability: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 7
Publication Date: 2021
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Children, Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Learning Problems, Vocabulary Development, Semantics
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-020-04687-x
ISSN: 0162-3257
Abstract: The current work suggests that two factors conspire to make vocabulary learning challenging for youth on the Autism spectrum: (1) a tendency to focus on specifics rather than on relationships among entities and (2) the fact that most words are associated with distinct but related meanings (e.g. baseball "cap," pen "cap," bottle "cap"). Neurotypical (NT) children find it easier to learn multiple related meanings of words ("polysemy") in comparison to multiple unrelated meanings ("homonymy"). We exposed 60 NT children and 40 verbal youth on the Autism spectrum to novel words. The groups' performance learning homonyms was comparable, but unlike their NT peers, youth on the spectrum did not display the same advantage for learning polysemous words compared to homonyms.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2021
Accession Number: EJ1297361
Database: ERIC
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Abstract:The current work suggests that two factors conspire to make vocabulary learning challenging for youth on the Autism spectrum: (1) a tendency to focus on specifics rather than on relationships among entities and (2) the fact that most words are associated with distinct but related meanings (e.g. baseball "cap," pen "cap," bottle "cap"). Neurotypical (NT) children find it easier to learn multiple related meanings of words ("polysemy") in comparison to multiple unrelated meanings ("homonymy"). We exposed 60 NT children and 40 verbal youth on the Autism spectrum to novel words. The groups' performance learning homonyms was comparable, but unlike their NT peers, youth on the spectrum did not display the same advantage for learning polysemous words compared to homonyms.
ISSN:0162-3257
DOI:10.1007/s10803-020-04687-x