ERIC Number: EJ771527
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Aug
Pages: 6
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0162-3257
EISSN: N/A
Brief Report: A Scale for Rating Conversational Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder
de Villiers, Jessica; Fine, Jonathan; Ginsberg, Gary; Vaccarella, Liezanne; Szatmari, Peter
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, v37 n7 p1375-1380 Aug 2007
There are few well-standardized measures of conversational breakdown in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The study's objective was to develop a scale for measuring pragmatic impairments in conversations of individuals with ASD. We analyzed 46 semi-structured conversations of children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD using a functional linguistic paradigm. Five constructs were developed that assessed difficulties related to the pragmatics of conversation: atypical intonation; semantic drift; terseness; pedantic speech; perseveration. The scale shows good inter-rater reliability and variation in the scales is not simply a reflection of IQ or language competence. This tool represents a way of characterizing language use in ASD and is an initial step towards developing a tool to evaluate change in degree of social impairments in conversation.
Descriptors: Measures (Individuals), Speech Communication, Semantics, Pragmatics, Interrater Reliability, Communication Disorders, Interpersonal Communication, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Children, Adolescents, Intonation, Test Construction, Rating Scales
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A