Abd El-Raziq Muna, Saiegh-Haddad Elinor, Meir Natalia
Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
J Commun Disord. 2025 Jan-Feb;113:106476. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2024.106476. Epub 2024 Nov 10.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interactions, social communication, and repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. Previous studies have reported mixed findings regarding the links between language (i.e., phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon, and pragmatics), theory of mind (ToM), executive functions (EFs), and central coherence measures in children with ASD.
A total of 163 Palestinian-Arabic-speaking children aged 4-11 participated: 76 with ASD and 87 with typical language development (TLD). The children`s phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical, and pragmatic skills, along with verbal and non-verbal ToM abilities were evaluated. Additionally, cognitive assessments included non-verbal IQ, EF, and central coherence processing.
Group-level results showed that children with ASD scored lower than their TLD peers in all measures. Network analysis revealed robust interconnections between language, ToM, and cognitive skills in both groups. In autistic children, language was a central node, with pragmatics prevailing over morphosyntax and lexicon, while age was central in the TLD group. Cluster analysis identified four language clusters within the ASD group, demonstrating dissociations between language domains: (1) high performance across all domains, (2) moderate performance in phonology and morphosyntax with low pragmatic abilities, (3) moderate performance in phonology and lexicon with low morphosyntax and pragmatics, and (4) moderate phonology and lexicon with extremely poor morphosyntax and pragmatics. Autistic children with enhanced language abilities performed better in verbal and non-verbal ToM and EF tasks.
Our findings underscore the variability in language, ToM, and cognitive profiles of autistic children, showing dissociation within and between different domains in some autistic children. These results offer insights for applied interventions.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是社交互动、社交沟通以及重复和刻板行为模式存在缺陷。先前的研究报告了关于自闭症谱系障碍儿童的语言（即语音、形态句法、词汇和语用学）、心理理论（ToM）、执行功能（EFs）和中央连贯性测量之间联系的混合结果。
共有163名4至11岁讲巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语的儿童参与：76名患有自闭症谱系障碍，87名具有典型语言发展（TLD）。评估了儿童的语音、形态句法、词汇和语用技能，以及言语和非言语心理理论能力。此外，认知评估包括非言语智商、执行功能和中央连贯性处理。
组水平结果显示，自闭症谱系障碍儿童在所有测量中得分均低于其典型语言发展的同龄人。网络分析揭示了两组中语言、心理理论和认知技能之间的紧密联系。在自闭症儿童中，语言是一个中心节点，语用学比形态句法和词汇更占优势，而在典型语言发展组中年龄是中心。聚类分析在自闭症谱系障碍组中识别出四个语言簇，表明语言领域之间存在分离：（1）所有领域表现都高，（2）语音和形态句法表现中等但语用能力低，（3）语音和词汇表现中等但形态句法和语用学低，（4）语音和词汇中等但形态句法和语用学极差。语言能力增强的自闭症儿童在言语和非言语心理理论及执行功能任务中表现更好。
我们的研究结果强调了自闭症儿童语言、心理理论和认知特征的变异性，表明一些自闭症儿童在不同领域内部和之间存在分离。这些结果为应用干预提供了见解。
