Investigating Morphosyntactic Patterns and Phonological Memory in Children With ASD and DLD
Yehudit Baranes1, Osnat Segal1,2
1Department of Communication Disorders, Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
Autism & Developmental Language Impairments
|August 15, 2026
Summary
Hebrew-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) show distinct morphosyntactic skills. These skills are linked to phonological memory challenges, particularly in children with ASD-Language-Impaired (ASD-LI) and DLD.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are neurodevelopmental conditions impacting language acquisition.
- Morphosyntax, the interplay of word formation and sentence structure, is a complex linguistic domain often affected in these populations.
- Understanding these specific challenges is crucial for targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the morphosyntactic characteristics of Hebrew-speaking children with ASD and DLD.
- To examine the relationship between morphosyntactic skills and phonological memory in these child groups.
- To compare these skills across subgroups: typically developing (TD), ASD-Language-Normal (ASD-LN), ASD-Language-Impaired (ASD-LI), and DLD.
Main Methods:
- Eighty Hebrew-speaking preschool children (ages 5-6) with average nonverbal intelligence were assessed.
- Morphosyntactic skills were evaluated using the Katzenberger Hebrew Language Assessment (KHLA) test.
- Phonological memory was assessed using the Shatil test, alongside broader language abilities via the Hebrew Goralnik test.
Main Results:
- Typically developing children outperformed all other groups on morphosyntactic and phonological memory tasks.
- Significant associations were found between morphosyntactic skills (KHLA) and phonological memory (Shatil) in children with ASD-Language-Impaired (ASD-LI) and DLD.
- Phonological memory accounted for an additional 11% of the variance in morphosyntactic skills across all participants.
Conclusions:
- Children with TD, ASD-LN, ASD-LI, and DLD exhibit distinct morphosyntactic profiles.
- Difficulties in phonological memory are closely linked to morphosyntactic deficits, especially in children with ASD-LI and DLD.
- These findings underscore the importance of addressing phonological memory in language interventions for children with ASD and DLD.
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