Exemplar Variability in Cross-Situational Word Learning Among Young Autistic Children

自闭症儿童跨情境词汇学习的范例变异性

• 批准号: 10605642
• 负责人: Kathryn Elaine Prescott
• 金额: $ 4.68万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10605642
• 关键词: 4 year old; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Characteristics; Child; Child Language; Clinical; Collaborations; Color; Development; Early Intervention; Environment; Ethics; Experimental Designs; Foundations; Future; Goals; High Prevalence; Image; Individual; Intervention; Investigation; Knowledge; Label; Language; Language Delays; Language Development; Learning; Life; Measures; Mentorship; Methodology; Methods; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; Nursery Schools; Pathway interactions; Performance; Population; Preschool Child; Process; Property; Research; Research Personnel; School-Age Population; Schools; Severities; Shapes; Stimulus; Strategic Planning; Structure; Symptoms; Task Performances; Texture; Time; Training; Vocabulary; Work; abstracting; autism spectrum disorder; autistic; autistic children; base; clinical practice; cohort; educational atmosphere; experience; insight; language impairment; natural language; negative affect; novel; peer; responsible research conduct; success; theories; visual tracking; word learning

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Word-learning difficulties are common among young autistic children. If unaddressed, these early challenges can negatively affect children’s communicative and academic success. To determine appropriate strategies for early intervention, it is essential to first understand the mechanisms underlying word learning in this highly heterogenous population. Based on previous work, one mechanism available to older autistic children is cross-situational learning (CSL). However, the higher prevalence of word-learning difficulties in ASD suggests the possibility of remaining unknown factors limiting children’s ability to make efficient use of CSL in real-world language environments. One possibility is that autistic children demonstrate delays in early development of CSL with cascading consequences for word learning. Previous findings indicate that older autistic children can use CSL to learn words, but this mechanism has not yet been examined in preschool-age autistic children. Employing a Looking-While-Listening eye-tracking paradigm, Specific Aim 1 (Study 1) of the proposed project will investigate CSL in a younger group of children (2- to 4-years old). A second possibility is that prior CSL studies have not reflected the challenges of children’s natural language environments. Previous studies required children to associate only one exemplar image with each label, whereas in real-world learning situations children encounter many different objects that are all given the same label. To support word learning in these contexts, neurotypical (NT) children tend to categorize objects based on shape (known as the shape bias). Preschool- and school-age autistic children do not share this tendency with NT peers. Without a shape bias, we might expect autistic children to experience word learning difficulties when multiple exemplars are presented matching the same label and shape but varying across other perceptual features (i.e., color). Specific Aim 2 (Study 2) will examine the impact of exemplar variability on novel words in the context of CSL and ostensive training tasks in young autistic children and language-matched NT peers. Finally, Specific Aim 3 (Study 3) will examine child characteristics associated with CSL task performance in ASD. By examining autistic preschool children’s ability to learn words via CSL at a younger age and across variable exemplars, the proposed project will elucidate potential points of vulnerability in word learning for this population. Study findings will advance the NIDCD strategic plan by increasing our understanding of language mechanisms in ASD and how they function differently across individual children and environmental contexts, with clinical implications including therapy stimuli selection and establishing CSL principles as a foundation for future interventions. Training Plan. The applicant’s training will focus on acquiring new methodological and conceptual knowledge in language-learning processes, eye-tracking methods, translational experimental design, mentorship of junior researchers, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and ethical and responsible conduct of research.

项目摘要/摘要 单词学习困难在自闭症儿童中很常见。如果不解决，这些早期的 挑战会对孩子在沟通和学习上的成功产生负面影响。以确定适当的 早期干预的策略，首先必须了解单词学习的潜在机制 这种高度异质性的种群。基于以前的工作，一种适用于年龄较大的自闭症儿童的机制 跨情景学习(CSL)。然而，自闭症患者单词学习困难的发生率更高，这表明 在现实世界中限制儿童有效使用CSL能力的未知因素的可能性 语言环境。一种可能性是自闭症儿童表现出CSL早期发育迟缓 对单词学习的影响是连锁的。此前的研究结果表明，年龄较大的自闭症儿童可以使用 CSL学习单词，但这一机制尚未在学龄前自闭症儿童中进行检验。用人 拟议项目的具体目标1(研究1)将采用边看边听的眼动跟踪模式 对年龄较小的儿童(2-4岁)进行CSL调查。第二种可能性是之前的中超研究 没有反映儿童自然语言环境的挑战。以前的研究要求儿童 只将一个样本图像与每个标签相关联，而在现实世界的学习环境中，孩子们 遇到许多不同的物体，它们都被赋予了相同的标签。为了在这些上下文中支持单词学习， 神经典型(NT)儿童倾向于根据形状对物体进行分类(称为形状偏见)。学前班--和 学龄期的自闭症儿童与NT同龄人不存在这种倾向。如果没有形状偏向，我们可能会期待 自闭症儿童在出现多个与 标签和形状相同，但在其他感知特征(即，颜色)上有所不同。具体目标2(研究2)将 在中国英语学习和明示训练任务的背景下，考察样本变异性对新词的影响 年幼的自闭症儿童和语言匹配的NT同龄人。最后，具体目标3(研究3)将检查儿童 与ASD中CSL任务绩效相关联的特征。通过检查自闭症学龄前儿童的能力 为了在更小的年龄和不同的样本中通过CSL学习单词，拟议的项目将阐明 这一人群在单词学习方面的潜在脆弱性。研究结果将推动NIDCD 通过增加我们对ASD中的语言机制以及它们如何不同地发挥作用的了解来制定战略计划 跨个体儿童和环境背景，具有临床意义，包括治疗刺激 选择和确立CSL原则作为未来干预的基础。培训计划。申请人的 培训将侧重于在语言学习过程中获得新的方法和概念知识， 眼球跟踪方法，翻译实验设计，初级研究人员指导，跨学科 合作，以及道德和负责任的研究行为。