Early Language Development Within the Autism Spectrum

描述(由申请人提供)：语言发育迟缓和沟通能力障碍是自闭症和PDD-NOS/非典型自闭症的诊断特征；患有阿斯伯格障碍的儿童的沟通挑战也有很好的记录。该项目的目标是描述被诊断出患有这种广泛性发育障碍的幼儿(将被称为患有自闭症的儿童)的早期语言发展的特征。我们的出发点是最近在自闭症谱系内观察到的语言障碍与在自闭症谱系外观察到的语言障碍(在语言特定障碍中)之间的经验重叠，我们的理论动机是自闭症患者中观察到的语言障碍是否涉及一系列独特的现象(独特的类别描述)，或者它们是否仅在数量上与语言特定障碍中观察到的语言障碍不同(维度描述)。我们的第一个具体目标是对大样本(N=170)的自闭症儿童在2岁和6岁时的早期语言技能进行表征；另一个平行的具体目标是通过评估相同的儿童在5岁和6岁时的语言结果(研究1和8)。进一步的具体目标将纵向比较2个自闭症亚组(“迟言者”和“正常词汇者”，N=74，每个亚组37人)与最近收集的2个样本--1个特定语言迟缓者和1个典型发育中的幼儿--他们接受了与建议的自闭症参与者相同的评估(研究2-7)。这一纵向比较将利用一系列的分组设计实验研究，以及微遗传学方法，来考察新词学习的机制和模式，词汇和语法技能之间的联系，以及早期语言能力和动词重复之间的关系。该项目的研究结果将极大地促进我们对ASD早期语言发展本质的理解，将通过澄清患有ASD和不患有ASD的晚期说话者之间的界限，导致更准确的早期诊断，并将提供更精细的语言表型，指导更合适的治疗方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Delays in language development and impairments in communication ability constitute a diagnostic feature of Autistic Disorder and PDD-NOS/Atypical Autism; communication challenges are also well documented among children with Asperger's Disorder. The goal of this project is to characterize the early language development of young children diagnosed with 1 of these pervasive developmental disorders (who will be referred to as children with an ASD). Our starting point is the empirical overlap recently demonstrated between the language impairments observed within the autism spectrum and those observed outside it (in language specific disorders), and our theoretical motivation is whether the language impairments observed in ASD involve a unique constellation of phenomena (the distinct category account), or whether they differ only quantitatively from those observed in language-specific disorders (the dimensional account). Our first specific aim will characterize the early language skills of a large sample (N=170) of ASD children at age 2;6; a parallel specific aim will evaluate language outcomes by assessing the same children at age 5;6 (Studies 1 and 8). Further specific aims will compare longitudinally 2 ASD subgroups ("late talker" and "normal vocabulary," N=74, 37 per subgroup) with 2 recently collected samples - 1 of late talkers with specific language delay and 1 of typically developing young children - who received the same assessments as those proposed for the ASD participants (Studies 2-7). This longitudinal comparison will utilize a series of group design experimental studies, as well as microgenetic methods, to examine mechanisms and patterns of novel word learning, the link between lexical and grammatical skills, and the relation between early language abilities and verbal repetition. Findings from this project will significantly advance our understanding of the nature of early language development in ASD, will lead to more accurate early diagnosis by clarifying the boundaries between late talkers with and without ASD, and will provide more refined language phenotypes that should direct better fitting treatment approaches.