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

虽然自闭症儿童在单词学习（WL）中使用与正常发育儿童相同的机制1,2,3,4,5,6，但他们在概括新单词方面存在困难，并且缺乏对可能促进语言习得困难儿童学习的因素的研究。神经影像学研究显示，自闭症患者在言语刺激时，大脑中特定语言区域的激活程度降低，但在歌曲刺激时，激活程度提高8,9。因此，音乐可以作为语言能力下降的补偿。据我们所知，没有研究调查音乐是否有助于WL。本研究旨在探讨自闭症儿童的内隐学习和口语及歌唱新词语的泛化。音乐有助于自闭症儿童的客体词映射吗？2. 音乐是否能促进自闭症儿童对新单词的概括？我们将招募30名学龄前自闭症儿童，并与一组神经正常组进行表达性词汇的匹配。将使用混合设计，将自闭症状态作为受试者之间的独立变量，而WL条件（口语与歌唱）作为受试者内部的独立变量。接受性学习的字数和泛化的新字数将成为因变量。由于社交技能和语言能力密切相关，音乐激活了自闭症患者大脑中特定语言的区域8,9，儿童的基线社会反应、语言和音乐感知将被测量，以研究它们在WL的调节作用。孩子们将接受三次测试。将在第一届会议期间对潜在主持人采取基准措施。将开发基于平板电脑的社交性和音乐性眼动追踪措施，以最大限度地减少任务需求。社会反应测试将改编自现有的基于应用程序的自闭症评估，音乐感知测试将改编自现有的面对面测试。认知和语言发展将使用标准化的直接报告和家长报告进行评估13,14。另外两节课将探讨口语和歌唱词的语言表达，并采用现有的语言表达模式。由于自闭症儿童在WL任务中具有较高的象似性，因此材料将包括彩色照片。热身试验将展示MB-CDI单词表中熟悉物体的照片。训练试验将使用名词数据库中的无意义单词和新对象。孩子们会在屏幕上听到和看到一个动画人物，这个人物会说出目标物品的名字（在说/唱单词的条件下通过说话/唱歌），并要求孩子在记忆和概括任务中识别它们。眼球追踪技术将用于识别儿童在这些任务中的优先观看模式。这项研究将现有的评估调整为基于应用程序的眼动追踪测量，用于很少或不会语言的幼儿，这可以被从业者用于评估未来的社会和音乐感知技能。我们的研究结果将为自闭症儿童在语言习得困难中促进词-客体映射的机制提供洞见，这对言语和语言干预具有启示意义，并将有助于塑造最佳的学习环境。使用卡通人物的实验方法可以扩展到基于应用程序的学习工具，以支持词汇习得。

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.