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The Development of Mental State Verb Use Among Autistic Children
Inbal Eilon1, Rama Novogrodsky1
1Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show delayed development of cognitive and emotion mental state verbs (MSVs) compared to typically developing children. Language abilities, theory of mind (TOM), and autism impact MSV development, highlighting the need for targeted evaluation in autistic children.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Background:
- Mental state verbs (MSVs) are crucial for describing internal states.
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research on MSV use in children is contradictory.
- Early childhood MSV developmental trajectories in ASD are poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- Compare MSV development in autistic children versus typically developing (TD) children.
- Investigate factors influencing MSV development in early childhood.
- Analyze developmental trajectories of desire, perception, physiological, cognitive, and emotion verbs.
Main Methods:
- 118 children (59 autistic, 59 TD), aged 3-10 years, participated.
- Parental MSV questionnaire assessed child's verb production.
- Syntax (sentence repetition) and Theory of Mind (TOM) abilities were measured.
Main Results:
- Cognitive and emotion verbs showed protracted development in both groups, more so in autistic children.
- Autistic children found cognitive and emotion verbs more challenging than TD children.
- Language, TOM, and group status explained variance in cognitive/emotion verb development beyond age.
Conclusions:
- MSV development occurs across five semantic categories from age 3-10 in autistic children.
- A specific linguistic difference exists in cognitive and emotion verb development between autistic and TD children.
- Syntax, TOM, and autism significantly influence MSV development, necessitating evaluation in autistic children.
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