The Comprehension of Cognitive Verbs Among Autistic Children

Understanding relative certainty and factivity of cognitive verbs (e.g., 'think', 'know') presents a significant challenge for both typically developing (TD) and autistic children. The first aim of the current study was to examine the understanding of these two aspects of cognitive verbs among autistic children compared to their TD peers. The second aim was to explore cognitive and linguistic capacities related to the development of cognitive verb understanding. 59 autistic and 62 TD children, ages 3 to 10 years, participated in a cross-sectional design that tested the comprehension of cognitive verbs in two tasks: understanding relative certainty and understanding factivity. In addition, children were tested in three tasks that evaluated Theory of Mind (TOM), vocabulary, and syntax. Autistic children had more difficulties than their TD peers in understanding the meaning of relative certainty and factivity of cognitive verbs. This difference was shown in both preschool and school-age children. Moreover, using logistic regression models, we found that age emerged as the sole predictor for comprehending cognitive verbs in TD children. For autistic children, TOM was the exclusive predictor for explaining factivity scores, and no predictor was identified for explaining relative certainty scores. The current research reveals a distinct linguistic difference in the comprehension of cognitive verbs between autistic and TD children. The results emphasize the link between understanding cognitive verbs and TOM abilities in autistic children. These results highlight the importance of focusing on the comprehension of cognitive verbs when assessing the language of autistic children.