Two-year-olds at elevated risk for ASD can learn novel words from their parents
Publication date
2022-09
Authors
van Rooijen, Rianne
Ward, Emma Kate
De Jonge, Maretha
Kemner, Chantal
Junge, Caroline
Editors
Advisors
Supervisors
Document Type
Article
Metadata
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License
cc_by_nc_sa
Abstract
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have smaller vocabularies in infancy compared to typically-developing children. To understand whether their smaller vocabularies stem from problems in learning, our study compared a prospective risk sample of 18 elevated risk and 11 lower risk 24-month-olds on current vocabulary size and word learning ability using a paradigm in which parents teach their child words. Results revealed that both groups learned novel words, even though parents indicated that infants at elevated risk of ASD knew fewer words. This suggests that these early compromised vocabularies cannot be solely linked to difficulties in word formations.
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, eye-tracking, infants, parents, word-object mapping, Language and Linguistics, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Linguistics and Language, General Psychology
Citation
Van Rooijen, R, Ward, E K, De Jonge, M, Kemner, C & Junge, C 2022, 'Two-year-olds at elevated risk for ASD can learn novel words from their parents', Journal of Child Language, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 1052-1063. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000921000428