Attentional abilities constrain language development: A cross-syndrome infant/toddler study
Attentional abilities constrain language development: A cross-syndrome infant/toddler study
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DOI：
10.1111/desc.12961
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发表时间：
2020-04-03
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D'Souza, Dean;D'Souza, Hana;Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
正常发育（TD）婴儿适应社会世界的部分原因是将他们的加工资源的焦点转移到视觉场景的相关方面。因此，视觉定向的任何损伤都可能限制语言等领域的学习和发展。然而，尽管我们对有自闭症风险的婴儿的视觉定向有所了解，但对患有其他神经发育障碍的婴儿/学步儿童的视觉定向知之甚少。这在一定程度上是因为以前的研究集中在年龄较大的儿童身上，很少将儿童与与TD对照组相匹配的实足年龄（CA）和心理年龄（MA）进行比较。然而，如果视觉导向对学习和发展很重要，那么就必须在发展的早期研究它，并确定它是否与语言等更高层次的认知功能有关。我们使用眼动追踪技术直接比较了三种神经发育障碍——唐氏综合征（DS）、脆性X染色体综合征（FXS）和威廉姆斯综合征（WS）中的一种——在CA或MA上与TD对照（类似于15个月）相匹配的婴幼儿的视觉定向。我们还使用马伦早期学习量表（MSEL）来测量语言能力。我们发现，将注意力从视觉刺激转移到另一个视觉刺激的能力与婴幼儿的语言能力有关，而与群体无关。我们还发现，与文献相反，婴儿和蹒跚学步的DS（但不是WS）在脱离注意力方面很慢。我们的数据表明，定向注意力限制了语言发展，并在退行性障碍中受到损害。
Typically developing (TD) infants adapt to the social world in part by shifting the focus of their processing resources to the relevant aspects of a visual scene. Any impairment in visual orienting may therefore constrain learning and development in domains such as language. However, although something is known about visual orienting in infants at risk of autism, very little is known about it in infants/toddlers with other neurodevelopmental disorders. This is partly because previous studies focused on older children and rarely compared the children to both chronological age (CA)- and mental age (MA)-matched TD controls. Yet, if visual orienting is important for learning and development, then it is imperative to investigate it early in development and ascertain whether it relates to higher level cognitive functions such as language. We used eye-tracking technology to directly compare visual orienting in infants/toddlers with one of three neurodevelopmental disorders-Down syndrome (DS), fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Williams syndrome (WS)-matched on CA or MA to TD controls (similar to 15 months). We also measured language ability using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). We found that the ability to disengage attention from a visual stimulus in order to shift it to another visual stimulus is related to language ability in infants/toddlers irrespective of group affiliation. We also found that, contrary to the literature, infants and toddlers with DS (but not WS) are slow at disengaging attention. Our data suggest that orienting attention constrains language development and is impaired in DS.