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On the Acquisition of the Syntax of Romance
Edited by Anna Gavarró
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 62] 2018
► pp. 235–258

Sentence repetition and language impairment in French-speaking children with ASD

| UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| Université de Genève
| Université de Genève
| UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours
| UMR 1253, Imagery and Brain (iBrain), Université de Tours, Inserm, Tours

This study investigates formal language abilities in French-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We report on the usefulness of the LITMUS-Sentence-Repetition-French task in distinguishing children with impaired language (ASD-LI) from children with normal language (ASD-LN). We examined complexity of syntactic computation, to determine whether children with ASD-LI behave analogously to children with SLI. Results showed that the ASD-LI group performed like the SLI group, while the ASD-LN group performed like the TD group. Despite the existence of a link between nonverbal IQ (NVIQ) and performance on SR, this correlation was not linear, due to the presence of children with each of the four formal language ability/NVIQ profiles, indicating the possible independence of formal language from nonverbal intelligence.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), formal language, sentence repetition, cognitive profile and NVIQ, autism severity, Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background and aims: The role of sentence repetition in evaluating formal language impairment
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials and procedure
      • 3.2.1Experimental task: Sentence repetition
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1The repetition task
    • 4.2The impact of linguistic and extra-linguistic measures in the ASD group
  • 5.Discussion
    • The impact of extra-linguistic factors in the ASD group
  • 6.Limitations and future directions for research
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 12 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.62.11sil
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