Investigating music as a facilitator of early word learning in autism: Learning words from spoken vs. sung language

研究音乐对自闭症早期单词学习的促进作用：从口语和歌唱语言中学习单词

• 批准号: 2890961
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Reading
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2890961
• 关键词: Investigating; music; facilitator; early; word

Background Although autistic children use the same mechanisms in word learning (WL) as typically developing children1,2,3,4,5,6, they struggle with the generalisation of new words, and there is a lack of research investigating factors that may facilitate learning in children who experience difficulties acquiring language7.Neuroimaging studies reveal that autistic individuals show reduced activation in language-specific brain regions during speech stimulation, but greater activation during song stimulation8,9. Thus, music could work as a compensator for reduced language abilities9. To our knowledge, there are no studies investigating if music facilitates WL. We propose to investigate implicit learning and generalisation of spoken and sung novel words in autism, addressing the following questions: 1. Does music facilitate object-word mappings in autistic children? 2. Does music promote generalisation processes of new words in autistic children?DesignWe will recruit 30 preschool-aged autistic children, matched with a neurotypical group on expressive vocabulary. A mixed design will be used, with autism status as between-subjects and WL condition (spoken vs. sung words) as within-subjects independent variables. Number of words learnt receptively and number of generalised novel words will be dependent variables. As social skills and language abilities are closely linked10, and music activates language-specific brain regions in autistic individuals8,9, children's baseline social responsiveness, language and musical perception will be measured to investigate their role as putative moderators of WL.Children will be tested over three sessions. Baseline measures of potential moderators will be taken during the first session. Tablet-based eye-tracking measures for sociality and musicality will be developed to minimise task demands. Social responsivity measures will be adapted from an existing app-based assessment for autism11 and music perception measures adapted from existing in-person tasks12. Cognitive and language development will be assessed using standardised direct and parent report measures13,14.WL of spoken and sung words will be investigated in two other sessions, adapting an existing WL paradigm2. Since autistic children benefit from higher iconicity in WL tasks15, materials will include coloured photographs. Warm-up trials will show photographs of familiar objects from MB-CDI word lists14. Training trials will use nonsense words and novel objects from the NOUN database16. Children will hear and see an animated cartoon character on screen which will name target items (through speaking/singing during the spoken/sung word condition) and ask the child to identify them in retention and generalisation tasks. Eye-tracking technology will be used to identify children's preferential looking patterns in these tasks.Implications This study will adapt existing assessments to an app-based eye-tracking measure for young children with little or no language which could be used by practitioners to assess social and musical perception skills in the future. Our findings will provide insight into mechanisms that may facilitate word-object mappings in autistic children experiencing difficulties acquiring language which has implications for speech and language interventions and will help to shape optimal learning environments. The experimental approach using a cartoon character could be extended to an app-based learning tool to support vocabulary acquisition.

背景尽管自闭症儿童在单词学习中使用相同的机制（WL）通常与儿童相同1,2,3,4,5,6，但他们在新单词的概括方面挣扎，并且缺乏研究因素，这些研究因素可能会在研究因素可能促进难度获得语言的儿童中的学习因素7.neuroimimaging研究表明，在语言中表现出较高的语言刺激性刺激性刺激性刺激性较高，但在启动过程中较大的刺激性启动，但在语言中较高，但在语言中却更大。因此，音乐可以作为降低语言能力的补偿器9。据我们所知，尚无研究调查音乐是否有助于WL。我们建议调查自闭症中口语和演唱新颖单词的隐性学习和概括，解决以下问题：1。音乐是否有助于自闭症儿童中的对象映射？ 2。音乐是否促进了自闭症儿童中新单词的概括过程？Designwe We将招募30个学龄前儿童的自闭症儿童，该儿童与表达词汇的神经型组相匹配。将使用混合设计，自闭症状态为受试者之间的和WL条件（口语与演唱单词），作为主体内部自变量。学到的单词数量和广义新颖单词的数量将是因变量。由于社交技能和语言能力紧密链接10，并且音乐激活了自闭症个体中的语言特定大脑区域8,9，将测量儿童的基线社会响应能力，语言和音乐感知，以调查其作用，因为他们将在三场比赛中测试Children的推定主持人。潜在主持人的基线度量将在第一届会议期间采取。基于平板电脑的社会性和音乐性措施将开发出最大程度地减少任务需求。社会响应措施将改编自对自闭症的现有评估和音乐感知措施改编自现有的面对面任务12。认知和语言发展将使用标准化的直接和家长报告测量值13,14.wl口语和唱歌单词进行研究，并在另外两个课程中进行调查，以适应现有的WL Paradigm2。由于自闭症儿童在WL Tasks15中受益于更高的标志性15，因此材料将包括彩色照片。热身试验将显示MB-CDI单词列表中熟悉对象的照片14。培训试验将使用名词数据库中的废话单词和新颖对象16。孩子们会在屏幕上听到并看到动画卡通角色，该角色将命名目标项目（通过口语/唱歌单词条件中的说话/唱歌），并要求孩子在保留和概括任务中识别它们。眼球追踪技术将用于确定这些任务中儿童的优先外观模式。本研究将使现有的评估适应基于应用程序的眼睛跟踪措施，用于对很少或没有语言的幼儿进行的，从业人员可以用来评估未来的社交和音乐感知能力。我们的发现将提供对可能有助于自闭症儿童中的单词对象映射的机制的洞察力，这些儿童会遇到难以获取语言，这对语音和语言干预具有影响，并有助于塑造最佳的学习环境。使用卡通角色的实验方法可以扩展到基于应用程序的学习工具，以支持词汇获取。