STUDIES OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION IN SPEAKERS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

项目III拟议的研究将探讨社会沟通的两个组成部分， 自闭症：会话语用学，特别是当这些受到狭隘利益的影响时; 以及韵律的产生和感知。这些技能将在两个横截面设计中进行检查， 发展水平：青春期前和青春期，并将比较扬声器之间的表现， 所有关于自闭症谱系障碍的典型发展。这些研究源于我们的持续研究， 自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者对社交的兴趣及其表现， 高水平的智力和语言能力，但在实现社会 互动研究1深入考察了在结构化的言语行为中产生适当言语行为的能力， 对话，使用脚本，自然的互动协议，旨在引发特定的言语行为 并产生会话技能的定量测量。除了观察目标是否 语音行为的产生，该协议还使用动态评估格式，以提供一个有序的 提示的层次结构，并评级的提示水平需要引起的行为，不自发发生。一个 协议的另一个方面是评估狭隘利益对务实表现的影响。 在这个协议上的表现将与非结构化对等体中的语用技能评级进行比较 互动这项研究有可能产生一个标准的定量，验证措施的语用 在临床环境中使用的能力，以评估务实的能力和衡量治疗的变化。研究 2扩展了我们的工作韵律的作用，在ASD的社会沟通赤字。我们建议使用 新的韵律测量标准，以典型儿童为标准，评估韵律功能的3个级别-- 语法、语用和情感--在自闭症患者中。这项研究还将包括功能磁共振成像工作， 接受性韵律任务。韵律产生模式及其在两个发展阶段的变化 期间的研究，也将进行检查，使用临床和语音技术的方法。这些数据 将有助于阐明韵律感知与产生之间的关系，确定普遍性， ASD内韵律缺陷的模式，并导致干预方法的发展， 弥补这些缺陷。

Project III The proposed study will examine two components of social communication in speakers with autism: conversational pragmatics, especially as these are impacted by the presence of narrow interests; and production and perception of prosody. These skills will be examined in a cross-sectional design at two developmental levels: preadolescence and adolescence, and will contrast performance among speakers at all points on the Autism Spectrum Disorder with typical development. The studies grow out of our on-going interest in social communication and its manifestation in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with high levels of intellectual and linguistic ability, but significant impairment in the capacity to achieve social interaction. Study 1 examines in depth the ability to produce appropriate speech acts in a structured conversation, using a scripted, naturalistic interactive protocol that is designed to elicit specific speech acts and yields a quantitative measure of conversational skill. In addition to observing whether or not the target speech acts are produced, the protocol also uses a dynamic assessment format to provide a sequenced hierarchy of prompts, and rates the level of prompt needed to elicit acts that do not occur spontaneously. An additional aspect of the protocol is the assessment of impact of narrow interests on pragmatic performance. Performance on this protocol will be compared to a rating of pragmatic skills in an unstructured peer interaction. This study has the potential to yield a standard quantitative, validated measure of pragmatic competence for use in clinical settings to evaluate pragmatic ability and measure change in treatment. Study 2 extends our work on the role of prosody in social communication deficits in ASD. We propose to use a newly available measure of prosody, normed on typical children, to assess 3 levels of prosodic function -- grammatical, pragmatic, and affective- in subjects with ASD. This study will also include fMRI work using the receptive prosody tasks. Patterns of prosodic production, and their change over the two developmental periods in the study, will also be examined, using both clinical and speech technology methods. These data will be help to elucidate the relations between prosodic perception and production, identify prevalence and patterns of prosodic deficits within ASD, and lead toward the development of intervention approaches to address these deficits.