Atypical Regional Accent in Autistic Children: A Perception Study

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Anecdotal evidence suggests autistic children exhibit unique speech accents.
• Previous research has not empirically tested or explained these accent differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the acoustic properties of autistic children's speech.
• To determine if autistic children's accents differ from their typically developing peers and regional norms.
• To explore potential influences on accent formation in autistic children.

Main Methods:

• Conducted two perception studies using audio recordings of children from the Campania region, Italy.
• Included both autistic and typically developing children.
• Analyzed listener judgments on children's geographical origin and accent features.

Main Results:

• Autistic children's speech lacked the distinctive regional accent features of their community.
• The accent of autistic children more closely resembled the standard Italian variety heard in media.
• Accent judgments were independent of perceived speech atypicality.

Conclusions:

• Autistic children's accents may diverge from their social environment due to significant exposure to screen-based media.
• Non-interactional, screen-based sources appear to be a key influence on accent acquisition in autistic children.
• This finding highlights the role of media in shaping speech patterns in autistic children.