ERIC Number: EJ1187362
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Sep
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0162-3257
EISSN: N/A
Selective Pragmatic Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Indirect Requests versus Irony
Deliens, Gaétane; Papastamou, Fanny; Ruytenbeek, Nicolas; Geelhand, Philippine; Kissine, Mikhail
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, v48 n9 p2938-2952 Sep 2018
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often described as being characterised by a uniform pragmatic impairment. However, recent evidence suggests that some areas of pragmatic functioning are preserved. This study seeks to determine to which extent context-based derivation of non-linguistically encoded meaning is functional in ASD. We compare the performance of 24 adults with ASD, and matched neuro-typical adults in two act-out pragmatic tasks. The first task examines generation of indirect request interpretations, and the second the comprehension of irony. Intact contextual comprehension of indirect requests contrasts with marked difficulties in understanding irony. These results suggest that preserved pragmatics in ASD is limited to egocentric processing of context, which does not rely on assumptions about the speaker's mental states.
Descriptors: Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Pragmatics, Adults, Comparative Analysis, Comprehension, Figurative Language, Interpersonal Communication
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
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