Disentangling syntactic, semantic and pragmatic impairments in ASD : elicited production of passives

Ambridge, B; Bidgood, A; Thomas, K

Abstract

Children with ASD and an IQ-matched control group of typically developing (TD) children completed an elicited-production task which encouraged the production of reversible passive sentences (e.g., “Bob was hit by Wendy”). Although the two groups showed similar levels of correct production, the ASD group produced a significantly greater number of “reversal” errors (e.g., “Wendy was hit by Bob”, when, in fact Wendy hit Bob) than the TD group (who, when they did not produce correct passives, instead generally produced semantically appropriate actives; e.g., “Wendy hit Bob”). These findings suggest that the more formal elements of syntax are spared relative to more semantic/pragmatic/narrative aspects (e.g., manipulating thematic roles) in at least high-functioning children with ASD.

Citation

Ambridge, B., Bidgood, A., & Thomas, K. (2021). Disentangling syntactic, semantic and pragmatic impairments in ASD : elicited production of passives. Journal of Child Language, 48(1), 184-201. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000920000215

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 5, 2020
• Online Publication Date: May 14, 2020
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: May 14, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: May 14, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Child Language
• Print ISSN: 0305-0009
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-7602
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 184-201
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000920000215
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000920000215
• Related Public URLs: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JCL
• Additional Information: Access Information : Gold open access; Projects : International Centre for Language and Communicative Development