Article
Clinical Neurology
Gary E. Martin, Michelle Lee, Klinton Bicknell, Adam Goodkind, Nell Maltman, Molly Losh
Summary: This study investigated the pragmatic language skills of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS), as well as other neurodevelopmental conditions. The findings showed that individuals with ASD and those with FXS-ASD had the greatest difficulties in pragmatic language across all social contexts. Computational linguistic analysis tools demonstrated some utility in measuring pragmatic skills, but were not as effective as traditional methods in distinguishing between clinical groups.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Lise Reindal, Terje Naerland, Bernhard Weidle, Stian Lydersen, Ole A. Andreassen, Anne Mari Sund
Summary: Pragmatic language impairments are most severe in children with autistic symptoms, and structural language deficits are associated with reduced pragmatic competence. Structural language deficits and early language delay are less common in females.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Sara Lago, Francesca Bevilacqua, Maria Rosaria Stabile, Cristina Scarpazza, Valentina Bambini, Giorgio Arcara
Summary: Pragmatics, the ability to integrate language and context for effective communication, may be impaired in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This article presents the case of an active secondary progressive MS patient whose pragmatic abilities declined markedly after receiving corticosteroid treatment.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Fawaz Qasem, Ahmed Alduais, Hind Alfadda, Najla Alfadda, Lujain Al Amri
Summary: This study examined the impact of socioeconomic status on pragmatic language development, and the moderating effects of gender and age on the relationship between interaction skills and PLD level. Findings suggest that preschool children with more interaction skills are likely to exhibit typical PLD, leading to a sustainable child-friendly society.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ahmed Alduais, Hind Alfadda, Silvia Allegretta, Tamara Trivkovic
Summary: This study provides a comprehensive review of pragmatic language impairment (PLI) by analyzing a substantial corpus of documents. The key findings include the identification of major themes in the PLI literature, such as social communication disorder and autism spectrum disorder, and highlighting the critical overlap between PLI and autism spectrum disorder.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2023)
Article
Pediatrics
Ahmed Alduais, Fawaz Qasem, Hind Alfadda, Najla Alfadda, Lujain AlAmri
Summary: The present study validates the Arabic version of the Pragmatic Language Skills Inventory (A-PLSI) for assessing pragmatic language development (PLD) in school settings and diagnosing pragmatic language impairment (PLI) in clinical settings. The A-PLSI demonstrates good psychometric properties and is able to differentiate children with and without PLI, as well as preschool children in school and clinical settings.
Review
Psychology, Developmental
Juliana Felix, Maria Emilia Santos, Antonio Benitez-Burraco
Summary: This review investigates the possible overlap in language development shared by autism spectrum disorders (ASD), specific language impairment (SLI), and social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD), and suggests that individuals who are matched in certain language or cognitive skills also exhibit similar characteristics in other language domains.
REVIEW JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Huilin Dai, Xiaowei He, Lijun Chen, Chan Yin
Summary: This study investigated the similarities and differences in the production of Chinese negative sentences by children with DLD and children with HFA-LI. The results showed that both groups faced similar difficulties in language expression, particularly in feature agreement. However, slight differences were also detected between the two groups.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Carly Demopoulos, Sara A. Skiba, Brandon E. Kopald, Nitin Bangera, Kim Paulson, Jeffrey David Lewine
Summary: This study examined the relationship between rapid auditory processing of speech sounds and verbal communication abilities in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results showed that impaired rapid auditory processing was associated with deficits in speech articulation, expressive language abilities, vocabulary, and phonological memory.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Grace O. Lawley, Steven Bedrick, Heather MacFarlane, Jill K. Dolata, Alexandra C. Salem, Eric Fombonne
Summary: Pragmatic language difficulties, such as unusual filler usage, are common among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study found that children with ASD used fewer ums compared to typically developing (TD) children. This difference remained after controlling for age, sex, and IQ. While social affect and pragmatic language scores did not predict filler usage in ASD, structural language scores did. Lower um rates in children with ASD may indicate problems with planning or production, rather than pragmatic language.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
D. Hilviu, A. Parola, S. Vivaldo, D. Di Lisi, P. Consolino, F. M. Bosco
Summary: Extensive research has shown the benefits of cochlear implants in improving the linguistic skills of children with hearing impairment. However, there is limited focus on the development of pragmatic ability and its relationship with age of implantation. The study found that early implantation may affect pragmatic development and children with cochlear implants scored lower in pragmatic ability assessment compared to typically hearing children.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Alona Oren, Esther Dromi, Sheila Goldberg, Aviva Mimouni-Bloch
Summary: The study found that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show delays in word emergence and understanding of communicative use compared to typically developing toddlers, with greater variability within the group. While the most common communicative intention in both groups was declarative speech, ASD toddlers lag behind their TD peers in this aspect. Additionally, ASD toddlers tend to use non-communicative speech more frequently than typically developing children, although this tendency decreases over time.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Pediatrics
Claudia Araya, Carmen Julia Coloma, Camilo Quezada, Paula Benavente
Summary: This paper explores the grammatical challenges faced by monolingual Spanish-speaking schoolchildren with Specific Language Impairment/Developmental Language Disorder (SLI/DLD) in developing clause complexity. The study examines the use of interclause relations in language samples of two groups: an experimental group of 24 schoolchildren with SLI/DLD and a control group of 24 children with typical development (TD). The results indicate that while both groups use parataxis as the most common relation between clauses, there is a decrease in paratactic relations and an increase in hypotactic relations as the students progress in primary education. The SLI/DLD group shows greater difficulties in mastering more complex hypotactic relations in fourth grade compared to the control group.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Gemma L. Williams, Tim Wharton, Caroline Jagoe
Summary: This study suggests that individuals with autism may face challenges in communication, which can be explained by relevance theory. Unexpectedly, a high level of mutual understanding was observed among autistic participants, and in some cases, improvements in individual communication competence were noted when interacting with other autistic individuals.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Daan P. J. Verberne, Rudolf W. H. M. Ponds, Marielle E. A. L. Kroese, Melloney L. M. Wijenberg, Dennis G. Barten, Raphael Pasmans, Julie Staals, Caroline M. van Heugten
Summary: Research found that long-term psychosocial outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and minor stroke are largely similar. Both groups showed improvements in anxiety, depression, cognitive problems and quality of life measures over the first year after injury, indicating that uniform aftercare for these conditions may be appropriate.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Eleanor Carey, Colm Healy, Yael Perry, Diane Gillan, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, Mary Cannon, Ashleigh Lin
Summary: The study suggests that early pan-developmental deficits are associated with later hallucinatory experiences (HE), with the strongest effect observed in young people who report recurrent HE throughout childhood and adolescence.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Review
Psychology, Developmental
Nicole Stuart, Andrew Whitehouse, Romina Palermo, Ellen Bothe, Nicholas Badcock
Summary: Reduced eye contact early in life may be a factor in the development of autism spectrum disorder, but there are conflicting theories about the neural mechanisms involved. The amygdala theory suggests that reduced eye contact is due to a hypoactive amygdala that fails to recognize eyes as important. In contrast, the eye avoidance hypothesis proposes that amygdala hyperactivity leads to eye avoidance. A review of studies found that most supported the eye avoidance hypothesis, indicating that individuals on the autism spectrum use eye avoidance to reduce amygdala-related hyperarousal.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Hannah Waddington, Ella Macaskill, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, Wesley Billingham, Gail A. Alvares
Summary: This study found that parent-reported atypical development in a child's first year is associated with age of diagnosis and age when parents first consulted a specialist. Atypical development in most domains is linked to an earlier age when specialist consultation is needed.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Willow J. Sainsbury, Kelly Carrasco, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, Hannah Waddington
Summary: Autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often occur together. This study found that children with both autism and ADHD were diagnosed with ADHD earlier and autism later. Parents of children with both disorders reported less atypical development in language and social behaviors, experienced longer wait times for diagnosis, and saw more types of specialists before getting a diagnosis compared to parents of children with just autism.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Correction
Psychology, Developmental
Willow J. Sainsbury, Kelly Carrasco, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, Hannah Waddington
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Paul A. Thompson, Kate E. Watkins, Zoe V. J. Woodhead, Dorothy V. M. Bishop
Summary: This study investigates how to align the analysis of brain lateralization using fTCD data with the statistical methods commonly used in fMRI. The results show that using complex GAM method has the lowest measurement error and can more accurately identify cases of bilateral language. Additionally, the GAM-based approach can efficiently analyze more complex designs that include interactions between tasks.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2023)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Oliver G. Isik, Ling Guo, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, Guohua Li, Caleb Ing
Summary: This study evaluated the association between prenatal marijuana exposure (PME) and neuropsychological test scores in children. After matching and adjustment, it was found that PME was not associated with worse neuropsychological test scores or autistic traits in children.
PAEDIATRIC AND PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Emily Spackman, Luke D. Smillie, Thomas W. Frazier, Antonio Y. Hardan, Gail A. Alvares, Andrew Whitehouse, Mirko Uljarevic
Summary: This study used Latent Profile Analysis to identify three subgroups in a sample of 1,892 autistic youth: Low CI, Predominantly RI, and Predominantly UI. These subgroups differed in key demographic and clinical variables, including age, sex composition, IQ, language level, social and communication abilities, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Therefore, this study represents an important initial step towards more individualized assessment and support for diverse presentations of CI in autistic youth.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
Samuel D. Calder, Christopher G. Brennan-Jones, Monique Robinson, Andrew Whitehouse, Elizabeth Hill
Summary: The purpose of this research is to raise awareness among child language researchers and clinicians about the potential limitations of domain-specific tests in assessing language, especially in large-scale studies and clinical practice. The study analyzed data from 1626 children aged 10, and found that domain-specific language assessments, particularly tests for receptive vocabulary, may overestimate language abilities in children with DLD. Caution is advised when using such tests in clinical and research settings.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Pediatrics
Alicia Montgomery, Anne Masi, Andrew Whitehouse, Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, Lauren Shuffrey, Mark D. Shen, Lisa Karlov, Mirko Uljarevic, Gail Alvares, Sue Woolfenden, Natalie Silove, Valsamma Eapen
Summary: This study used data from the Australian Autism Biobank (AAB) to subgroup children on the autism spectrum based on their behavioral, cognitive, medical, and psychiatric profiles. Four subgroups with different characteristics and comorbidities were identified. These findings have implications for assessing and providing comprehensive support for children on the autism spectrum.
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY AND MENTAL HEALTH
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Leonie Segal, Jonathan Green, Asterie Twizeyemariya, Kristelle Hudry, Ming Wai Wan, Josephine Barbaro, Teresa Iacono, Kandice J. Varcin, Sarah Pillar, Matthew N. Cooper, Wesley Billingham, Gemma Upson, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse
Summary: This study estimated the economic cost impact of the iBASIS-VIPP intervention on the Australian government and found that it could save healthcare costs. Compared with usual care, the iBASIS-VIPP intervention reduced disability support costs for children diagnosed with ASD at the age of 3. The findings suggest that iBASIS-VIPP represents a valuable societal investment for supporting neurodivergent children.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Guy Vingerhoets, Helena Verhelst, Robin Gerrits, Nicholas Badcock, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, David Carey, Jason Flindall, Gina Grimshaw, Lauren Julius Harris, Markus Hausmann, Marco Hirnstein, Lutz Jancke, Marc Joliot, Karsten Specht, Rene Westerhausen
Summary: This study aims to establish consensus on best practices for assessing and reporting left-right asymmetry in various methods of laterality research. Experts in the field were surveyed and their input was used to generate key recommendations.
Editorial Material
Psychology, Clinical
Andrew Whitehouse
Summary: Over time, the clinical definition of autism has broadened to include the autism spectrum, while the neurodiversity movement has completely reframed the concept of autism. Without a coherent framework, there is a risk of losing definition in the field. Green proposes a framework based on evidence that can guide its users in real-world healthcare settings. The framework has the potential to address the barriers faced by autistic children in receiving their human rights while recognizing the principles of neurodiversity.
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH
(2023)
Article
Education, Special
Willow J. Sainsbury, Chris J. Bowden, Kelly D. Carrasco, Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, Hannah Waddington
Summary: This study compares the experiences of parents whose children have been diagnosed with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or both. The findings reveal common and unique themes across these neurodevelopmental conditions, indicating the need for changes in the diagnostic process.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Social
Jack D. Brett, Rodrigo Becerra, Andrew Whitehouse, David A. Preece, Murray T. Maybery
Summary: Individuals with pronounced autistic traits struggle with cognitive empathy and may show different levels of affective empathy for positive and negative emotions. Alexithymia and emotion dysregulation help explain these differences, while gender plays a moderating role.
PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
(2024)
