EARLY LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS IN AUTISM

语言和沟通障碍是自闭症的关键组成部分。我们的实验室一直在对患有自闭症的学龄前儿童进行研究，检查语言处理的早期方面。这些研究揭示了学龄前自闭症儿童与发育迟缓（DD）和典型发育儿童的心理年龄和时序年龄匹配组之间在语音辨别，社会沟通和跨模态处理方面的关键差异。由于这些措施反映了婴儿期出现的能力，这些结果表明早期言语措施在很小的时候就可以识别自闭症儿童。此外，这些语言和沟通能力的早期测量可能被证明是语言结果的非常敏感的预测因素， 自闭症儿童在目前的提案中，我们计划检查这些早期言语测量-即，（1）语音感知的事件相关脑电位测量，（2）对语音与机械声音听觉信号的听力偏好，以及（3）声音模仿能力-在18-24个月的自闭症儿童中，并将患有DD和典型发育的儿童进行比较，以确定这些措施是否会在早期歧视自闭症儿童。此外，我们将评估它们在解释个体差异和预测自闭症儿童4岁时的语言结果方面的价值。

Language and communication impairments are key components of autism. Our laboratory has been conducting studies on preschool age children with autism examining early aspects of language processing. These studies have revealed critical differences in phonetic discrimination, social communication, and crossmodal processing between preschool age children with autism and mental-age and chronological-age matched groups of developmentally delayed (DD) and typically developing children. As these measures reflect abilities that emerge during infancy, these results signal the potential of early speech measures for identifying children with autism at a very young age. Furthermore, it is possible that these early measures of language and communication ability may prove to be very sensitive predictors of language outcome for children with autism. In the current proposal, we plan to examine these early speech measures - namely, (1) event-related brain potential measures of phonetic perception, (2) listening preference for speech versus mechanical-sounding auditory signals, and (3) vocal imitation abilities - in 18-24 month children with autism, and comparison groups of children with DD and typical development to determine whether such measures discriminate children with autism at an early age. Furthermore, we will assess their value in explaining individual differences and predicting language outcome at age 4 for children with autism.