HyeKyeung Seung

Linguistic characteristics of individuals with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome.

This study examined the linguistic characteristics of high functioning individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome. Each group consisted of 10 participants who were matched on sex, chronological age, and intelligence scores. Participants generated a narrative after watching a brief video segment of the Social Attribution Task video. Each participant was then asked 10 questions related to the stimulus video. The narrative samples and responses to the questions were analysed linguistically. Individuals with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome performed similarly on most measures of language function; however, results suggest there may be pragmatically‐based differences between the groups in the use of verb tense markers.

Evaluation of the Efficacy of Communication-Based Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Literature Review.

This literature review examines the present level of evidence in support of communication-based treatments for children with autism spectrum disorders. Reviews to date have reported on research published through 2002. The current article included 36 studies published between 2002 and 2007. Best available evidence is presented for seven treatment categories: applied behavior analysis, naturalistic behavioral, developmental, classroom-based, video modeling, social skills, and augmentative and alternative communication. Findings indicate that empirical support has been obtained for the efficacy of several methods, whereas other methods remain in an exploratory stage of investigation.

The effect of story presentation rates on story retelling by individuals with Down syndrome

The current study examined the effect of story presentation rates on story recall performance in 35 individuals with Down syndrome and 3 control groups (35 mental age matched, 35 syntax comprehension matched, and 35 syntax production matched children). Three short audiotaped stories were presented to each individual at three different rates (normal, storyteller [slow with expressive inflections], and slow rate). The effect of group but not rate was significant. Individuals with Down syndrome recalled more content words than the production-matched group and the productionmatched group recalled fewer content words than the mental age matched and comprehensionmatched groups. The results were interpreted in relation to working memory deficits in individuals with Down syndrome, developmental change in story recall of typically developing children, and the contribution of syntax comprehension to story recall. Language production involves multiple levels of processing, including message formation, compilation of the linguistic components (phonetic phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic elements), and speech execution (Bock, 1982, 1996; Griffin & Bock, 1998). Although these processes occur relatively automatically in typically developing children, trade-off effects can be observed when the speaking task is effortful (Streim & Chapman, 1987). Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) experience deficits in morphosyntactic production in spontaneous narrative and conversational samples (Chapman, 1997; Vicari, Caselli, & Tonucci, 2000). Because individuals with DS may experience greater effort in morphosyntactic processes than individuals at the same or higher expressive language levels, tasks that reduce information processing load compared to spontaneous narrative might benefit them more than controls matched