Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Res Dev Disabil. 2018 Jan;72:128-139. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.11.004. Epub 2017 Nov 11.
Gestures are spontaneous hand movements produced when speaking. Despite gestures being of communicative significance, little is known about the gestural production in spoken narratives in six- to 12-year-old children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
The present study examined whether six- to 12-year-old children with ASD have a delay in gestural production in a spoken narrative task, in comparison to their typically-developing (TD) peers.
Six- to-12-year-old children with ASD (N=14) and their age- and IQ-matched TD peers (N=12) narrated a story, which could elicit spontaneous speech and gestures. Their speech and gestures were then transcribed and coded.
Both groups of children had comparable expressive language skills. Children with ASD produced a similar number of pointing and marker gestures to TD children and significantly more iconic gestures in their spoken narratives. While children with ASD produced more reinforcing gestures than their TD counterparts, both groups of children produced comparable numbers of disambiguating and supplementary gestures.
Our findings indicate that children with ASD may be as capable as TD children in gestural production when they engage in spoken narratives, which gives them spontaneity in producing gestures.
手势是说话时产生的自发手部动作。尽管手势具有交际意义，但对于 6 至 12 岁自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童在口语叙述中产生的手势知之甚少。
本研究旨在比较 6 至 12 岁 ASD 儿童和他们的典型发育（TD）同龄人在口语叙述任务中手势产生是否存在延迟。
14 名 6 至 12 岁的 ASD 儿童（N=14）和他们年龄和智商匹配的 TD 同龄人（N=12）讲述了一个故事，可以引出自发的言语和手势。然后将他们的言语和手势转录并编码。
两组儿童的表达性语言技能相当。与 TD 儿童相比，ASD 儿童在口语叙述中产生了同样多的指点和标记手势，并产生了更多的象征性手势。虽然 ASD 儿童比他们的 TD 同龄人产生了更多的强化手势，但两组儿童产生的澄清和补充手势数量相当。
我们的研究结果表明，在进行口语叙述时，ASD 儿童在手势产生方面可能与 TD 儿童一样有能力，这使他们在产生手势时具有自发性。
