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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism
Published on: October 3, 2018
A Multidimensional Reappraisal of Language in Autism: Insights from a Discourse Analytic Study
Laura Sterponi1,2, Kenton de Kirby3
1Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley, 5643 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1670, USA. sterponi@berkeley.edu.
Abstract:
In this article, we leverage theoretical insights and methodological guidelines of discourse analytic scholarship to re-examine language phenomena typically associated with autism. Through empirical analysis of the verbal behavior of three children with autism, we engage the question of how prototypical features of autistic language-notably pronoun atypicality, pragmatic deficit, and echolalia-might conceal competencies and interactional processes that are largely invisible in mainstream research. Our findings offer a complex picture of children with autism in their use of language to communicate, interact and experience others. Such a picture also deepens our understanding of the interactional underpinnings of autistic children's speech. Finally, we describe how our findings offer fruitful suggestions for clinical intervention.
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