Reconceptualising word learning difficulties in children with autism using novel empirical and computational methods.

使用新颖的经验和计算方法重新概念自闭症儿童的单词学习困难。

• 批准号: ES/N016955/1
• 负责人: Calum Hartley
• 金额: $ 19.31万
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FN016955%2F1
• 关键词: Reconceptualising; word; learning; difficulties; children

Word learning is a vital aspect of children's language development. However, many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have enormous difficulty learning words and approximately 30% have virtually no language at 9 years of age. As ASD affects 1 in 68 children worldwide, investigating why so many of these children struggle to learn words is a global research priority and a necessary precursor to designing effective interventions.This project will explore multiple stages of word learning in minimally-verbal children with ASD in order to isolate the source, or sources, of their difficulties. In a series of experiments involving children with ASD and children with typical development, we will compare how these groups (a) identify the meanings of unfamiliar words, (b) retain the meanings of words over time, and (c) generalise words to novel contexts. We will also assess how these stages of word learning are influenced by autistic children's reduced sensitivity to informative social cues, such as gaze and gesture. Based on these novel data, we will develop a new integrative account of word learning deficits in ASD that incorporates multiple aspects of word learning and how they are influenced by social difficulties. This account will be supported by a new computational model simulating a child with ASD learning new words. The model will indicate how the stages of word learning might interact to produce the problems observed in children with ASD. Consequently, this modelling will provide insight that could not be obtained by simply observing behaviour. Moreover, it will yield numerous theoretical hypotheses for future research and provide a basis for predicting the effects of new interventions that may promote word learning in children with ASD. The findings from this research will have important implications for practice in Special Education. By examining multiple aspects of word learning, our studies will identify specific weaknesses that can be targeted by interventions and strengths to capitalise on. We will also discover whether word learning in children with ASD can be improved by directing their attention and identify the best way of doing this (e.g. social or non-social cues). Crucially, this project will provide a necessary foundation on which to develop new evidence-based interventions that scaffold each stage of word learning, thus providing optimal learning conditions for children with ASD.

单词学习是儿童语言发展的一个重要方面。然而，许多患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的儿童在学习单词方面存在巨大困难，大约30%的儿童在9岁时几乎没有语言。由于ASD影响全球每68个儿童中就有一个，调查为什么这么多儿童学习单词困难是全球研究的重点，也是设计有效干预措施的必要先导。本项目将探索患有ASD的最少言语儿童的单词学习的多个阶段，以隔离他们困难的来源。在一系列涉及自闭症儿童和具有典型发育的儿童的实验中，我们将比较这些小组如何(A)识别陌生单词的含义，(B)随着时间的推移保持单词的含义，以及(C)将单词概括为新的上下文。我们还将评估自闭症儿童对信息性社交线索(如凝视和手势)的敏感度降低对这些单词学习阶段的影响。基于这些新的数据，我们将开发一种新的关于ASD单词学习缺陷的综合描述，包括单词学习的多个方面，以及它们是如何受到社交困难的影响的。这一说法将得到一个新的计算模型的支持，该模型模拟了患有自闭症的儿童学习新单词。该模型将表明单词学习的各个阶段如何相互作用，从而产生在自闭症儿童中观察到的问题。因此，这种模型将提供不能通过简单地观察行为获得的洞察力。此外，它将为未来的研究提供大量的理论假设，并为预测新的干预措施的效果提供基础，这些干预措施可能会促进ASD儿童的单词学习。这项研究的发现将对特殊教育实践具有重要的指导意义。通过考察词汇学习的多个方面，我们的研究将确定干预措施可以针对的具体弱点和可以利用的优势。我们还将发现，是否可以通过引导ASD儿童的注意力来改善他们的单词学习，并确定做到这一点的最佳方式(例如，社交或非社交线索)。至关重要的是，该项目将提供必要的基础，在此基础上制定新的循证干预措施，为单词学习的每个阶段奠定基础，从而为患有自闭症的儿童提供最佳的学习条件。