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Article published In: Autism, Language, Communication and Cognition
Edited by Stephanie Durrleman
[Evolutionary Linguistic Theory 4:1] 2022
► pp. 52–101

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Comprehension of core grammar in diverse samples of Mandarin-acquiring preschool children with ASD

ORCiD logo with link | Central South University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Connecticut
Published online: 29 September 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00038.su
Abstract
In this review, we summarize studies investigating comprehension of three core grammatical structures (Subject-Verb-Object word order, grammatical aspect and wh-questions) in diverse samples of Mandarin-acquiring preschoolers with ASD, all utilizing the Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL) paradigm. Results showed that children with ASD, though they were delayed in chronological age and expressive language (including significantly lower vocabulary production scores), acquired various grammatical constructions similarly to their typically developing peers. Moreover, Mandarin-acquiring preschoolers with ASD demonstrated similar acquisition patterns of these three core grammatical structures, as has been reported in previous IPL studies among English-acquiring children with ASD (Naigles, L. R., & Tek, S. (2017). “Form is easy, meaning is hard’ revisited: (re) characterizing the strengths and weaknesses of language in children with autism spectrum disorder. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews-Cognitive Science, 8(4). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Thus, the results testify that universal underlying mechanisms are playing vital roles in grammatical acquisition of children with ASD across languages (e.g., the setting of word order parameters, the preservation of functional morphemes, the universal operation of WH-Movement), despite their pervasive social cognition impairments. These findings suggest that core grammatical knowledge may be preserved in children with ASD, even in the face of radical differences in language environment and social/communicative deficits, supporting the contribution of the language faculty in autistic language acquisition. The results shed light on the sharp contrast between linguistic competence (governed by the internal computational system of the language faculty) vs. linguistic performance (affected by loci of impairment in the sensory-motor and the conceptual-intentional interfaces) in ASD. Furthermore, the results highlight the dissociation between the lexical vs. the grammatical modules in ASD, supporting a modular view of the diverse language domains in the language faculty.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Recent theoretical accounts proposing the contribution of the language faculty in atypical language development including ASD
    • 1.2Grammatical strengths in English-acquiring preschool children with ASD indicating the role of a language faculty in autistic language acquisition
    • 1.3Do we have evidence for the language faculty from cross-linguistic grammatical studies in children and adolescents with ASD?
    • 1.4The early lexical-grammatical relationship in ASD and the inner architecture of the language faculty
  • 2.Overview of the Mandarin IPL studies
  • 3.Study 1: Comprehension of SVO word order in a diverse sample of Mandarin-acquiring preschool children with ASD
    • 3.1Methods
    • 3.2Results
    • 3.3Discussion
  • 4.Study 2: Comprehension of grammatical aspect in a diverse sample of Mandarin-acquiring preschool children with ASD
    • 4.1Methods
    • 4.2Results
    • 4.3Discussion
  • 5.Study 3: Comprehension of subject and object wh-questions in a diverse sample of Mandarin-acquiring preschool children with ASD
    • 5.1Methods
    • 5.2Results
    • 5.3Discussion
  • 6.Summary of the Mandarin IPL studies
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (135)
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