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Children with autism align syntax in natural conversation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2015

ZOË HOPKINS ,
NICOLA YUILL  and
BILL KELLER
ZOË HOPKINS*
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
NICOLA YUILL
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
BILL KELLER
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Zoë Hopkins, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK. E-mail: z.hopkins@sussex.ac.uk
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Abstract

Previous experimental work has shown that verbal children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) converge linguistically, or align, with an interlocutor, and to the same extent as typical children. However, it is not known whether ASD children align in natural conversation. The studies presented in this paper aimed to address this issue. We measured syntactic alignment in ASD children, first using an experimental task, and second in natural conversation. We found that ASD and typical children aligned to the same extent in both tasks, suggesting that experimental findings about alignment in ASD are ecologically valid. We argue, however, that the experimental measurement of alignment overstates the prevalence of syntactic alignment in children's conversations.

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Articles
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Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 347 - 370
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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