Background and aims When children hear a novel word, they tend to associate it with a novel rather than a familiar object. The ability to map a novel word to its corresponding referent is thought to depend, at least in part, on language-learning strategies, such as mutual exclusivity and lexical contrast. Although the importance of word learning strategies has been broadly investigated in typically developing children as well as younger children with autism spectrum disorder, who are usually language delayed, there is a paucity of research on such strategies and their role in language learning in school-age children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder who have failed to develop fluent speech. In this study, we examined the ability of minimally verbal children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to learn and retain novel words in an experimental task, as well as the cognitive, language, and social correlates of these abilities. We were primarily interested in the characteristics that differentiated between three subgroups of participants: those unable to use word learning strategies, particularly mutual exclusivity, to learn novel words; those able to learn novel words over several exposure trials but not able retain them; and those able to retain the words they learned. Methods Participants were 29 minimally verbal individuals with autism spectrum disorder from 5 to 17 years of age. Participants completed a computerized touchscreen novel-word-learning procedure followed by assessments of immediate retention and of delayed retention, two hours later. Participants were grouped according to whether they passed/failed at least 7 of 8 (binomial p < .035) novel word learning trials and 7 of 8 immediate or delayed retention trials, and were compared on measures of nonverbal IQ, receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological processing, joint attention and symptom severity. Results Of 29 participants, 14 failed both learning and immediate retention, 8 passed learning but failed immediate retention, and 7 passed both learning and immediate retention. Group performance was highly similar for delayed retention. Language level, particularly expressive vocabulary, differentiated between participants who did and did not succeed in retention, even while controlling for differences in nonverbal IQ. Conclusions The ability of minimally verbal school-age children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to identify the referents of novel words was associated with nonverbal cognitive abilities. Retention of words was associated with concurrent expressive language abilities. Implications Our findings of associations between the retention of novel words acquired in a lab-based experimental task and concurrent language ability warrants further investigation with larger samples and longitudinal research designs, which may support the incorporation of contrastive word learning strategies into language learning interventions for severely language-impaired individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍儿童和青少年词汇学习的实验研究

背景和目的 当孩子们听到一个新词时，他们倾向于将它与小说而不是熟悉的物体联系起来。人们认为，将新词映射到其对应所指对象的能力至少部分取决于语言学习策略，例如互斥性和词汇对比。尽管单词学习策略的重要性已在正常发育的儿童以及患有自闭症谱系障碍的年幼儿童中进行了广泛的研究，这些儿童通常语言延迟，但对此类策略及其在学龄期语言学习中的作用的研究很少无法流利说话的自闭症谱系障碍儿童和青少年。在这项研究中，我们检查了自闭症谱系障碍儿童和青少年在实验任务中学习和保留新词的能力，以及这些能力的认知、语言和社会相关性。我们主要对区分三个参与者亚组的特征感兴趣：那些无法使用单词学习策略，特别是互斥性来学习新单词的人；那些能够在几次暴露试验中学习新词但不能保留它们的人；以及那些能够记住他们学过的单词的人。方法 参与者是 29 名 5 至 17 岁的自闭症谱系障碍患者。参与者完成了计算机触摸屏新词学习程序，然后评估立即保留和延迟保留，两个小时后。参与者根据他们是否通过/失败至少 8 次（二项式 p < .035）新词学习试验中的 7 次和 8 次立即或延迟保留试验中的 7 次进行分组，并在非语言智商、接受和表达词汇的测量上进行比较，语音处理、共同注意和症状严重程度。结果 29 名参与者中，14 人学习和即时记忆均未通过，8 人通过学习但即时记忆不及格，7 人学习和即时记忆均通过。延迟保留的团队绩效非常相似。语言水平，特别是表达性词汇，在成功保留和未成功保留的参与者之间存在差异，即使在控制非语言智商差异的情况下也是如此。结论 患有自闭症谱系障碍的最小语言学龄儿童和青少年识别新词所指对象的能力与非语言认知能力相关。单词的保留与同时表达的语言能力有关。启示 我们对在实验室实验任务中获得的新词的保留与并发语言能力之间的关联的发现值得进一步研究更大的样本和纵向研究设计，这可能支持将对比词学习策略纳入语言学习干预患有自闭症谱系障碍的语言障碍个体。单词的保留与同时表达的语言能力有关。启示 我们对在实验室实验任务中获得的新词的保留与并发语言能力之间的关联的发现值得进一步研究更大的样本和纵向研究设计，这可能支持将对比词学习策略纳入语言学习干预患有自闭症谱系障碍的语言障碍个体。单词的保留与同时表达的语言能力有关。启示 我们对在实验室实验任务中获得的新词的保留与并发语言能力之间的关联的发现值得进一步研究更大的样本和纵向研究设计，这可能支持将对比词学习策略纳入语言学习干预患有自闭症谱系障碍的语言障碍个体。