Braddock Barbara A, Gabany Christina, Shah Meera, Armbrecht Eric S, Twyman Kimberly A
Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2016 Aug 1;25(3):408-15. doi: 10.1044/2015_AJSLP-14-0112.
The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of spontaneous gesture use in a sample of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Thirty-five adolescents with ASD ages 11 to 16 years participated (mean age = 13.51 years; 29 boys, 6 girls). Participants' spontaneous speech and gestures produced during a narrative task were later coded from videotape. Parents were also asked to complete questionnaires to quantify adolescents' general communication ability and autism severity.
No significant subgroup differences were apparent between adolescents who did not gesture versus those who produced at least 1 gesture in general communication ability and autism severity. Subanalyses including only adolescents who produced gesture indicated a statistically significant negative association between gesture rate and general communication ability, specifically speech and syntax subscale scores. Adolescents who gestured produced higher proportions of iconic gestures and used gesture mostly to add information to speech.
The findings relate spontaneous gesture use to underlying strengths and weaknesses in adolescents' speech and syntactical language development. More research examining cospeech gesture in fluent speakers with ASD is needed.
本研究旨在调查患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的青少年样本中自发手势的使用模式。
35名年龄在11至16岁之间的患有ASD的青少年参与了研究（平均年龄 = 13.51岁；29名男孩，6名女孩）。参与者在叙述任务中产生的自发言语和手势随后从录像带中进行编码。还要求家长填写问卷，以量化青少年的一般沟通能力和自闭症严重程度。
在一般沟通能力和自闭症严重程度方面，不使用手势的青少年与至少做出1个手势的青少年之间没有明显的亚组差异。仅包括做出手势的青少年的亚分析表明，手势频率与一般沟通能力之间存在统计学上显著的负相关，特别是言语和句法分量表得分。做出手势的青少年产生的象似性手势比例更高，并且主要使用手势为言语添加信息。
研究结果将自发手势的使用与青少年言语和句法语言发展的潜在优势和劣势联系起来。需要更多研究来考察患有ASD的流利说话者中的伴随言语手势。
