Department of Psychology, University of Córdoba, Spain.
Maimónides Biomedical Research Institute of Córdoba, Reina Sofía University Hospital of Córdoba, Spain.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2024 Sep 12;67(9):3148-3162. doi: 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00109. Epub 2024 Aug 28.
Developmental language disorder (DLD) and autism sometimes appear as overlapping conditions in behavioral tests. There is much literature on the visual scanning pattern (VSP) of faces in autistic children, but this is scarce regarding those with DLD. The purpose of this study was to compare the VSP of faces in young children with DLD, those with autism, and typically developing peers, assessing the effect of three variables.
Two eye-tracking experiments were designed to assess the effect of the emotion and the poser's gender (Experiment 1) and the poser's age (Experiment 2) on the VSP of participants (Experiment 1: = 59, age range: 32-74 months; Experiment 2: = 58, age range: 32-74 months). We operationalized the VSP in terms of attentional orientation, visual preference, and depth of processing of each sort of face. We developed two paired preference tasks in which pairs of images of faces showing different emotions were displayed simultaneously to compete for children's attention.
Data analysis revealed two VSP markers common to both disorders: (a) superficial processing of faces and (b) late orientation to angry and child faces. Moreover, one specific marker for each condition was also found: typical preference for child faces in children with DLD versus diminished preference for them in autistic children.
Considering the similarities found between children with DLD and those with autism, difficulties of children with DLD in attention to faces have been systematically underestimated. Thus, more effort must be made to identify and respond to the needs of this population. Clinical practice may benefit from the potential of eye-tracking methodology and the analysis of the VSP to assess attention to faces in both conditions. This would also contribute to the improvement of early differential diagnosis in the long run.
发育性语言障碍（DLD）和自闭症在行为测试中有时表现为重叠的病症。关于自闭症儿童的面部视觉扫描模式（VSP）有很多文献，但关于 DLD 儿童的则很少。本研究的目的是比较 DLD 儿童、自闭症儿童和正常发育儿童的面部 VSP，评估三个变量的影响。
设计了两个眼动追踪实验来评估情绪和模特性别（实验 1）以及模特年龄（实验 2）对面部 VSP 的影响（实验 1：n=59，年龄范围：32-74 个月；实验 2：n=58，年龄范围：32-74 个月）。我们根据注意力方向、视觉偏好和每种面部的加工深度来操作 VSP。我们开发了两个配对偏好任务，在这两个任务中，同时显示显示不同情绪的面孔图像对，以竞争儿童的注意力。
数据分析揭示了两个共同存在于两种障碍中的 VSP 标志物：（a）面部的浅层加工和（b）对愤怒和儿童面孔的后期定向。此外，还发现了每个条件的一个特定标志物：DLD 儿童对儿童面孔的典型偏好，而自闭症儿童对儿童面孔的偏好减弱。
考虑到 DLD 儿童和自闭症儿童之间发现的相似性，对 DLD 儿童对面部注意力的困难一直被系统地低估了。因此，必须更加努力地识别和满足这一人群的需求。临床实践可能受益于眼动追踪方法和 VSP 分析对面部注意力的评估，这也将有助于从长远来看改善早期鉴别诊断。
