Eilon Inbal, Novogrodsky Rama
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Jun 25. doi: 10.1007/s10803-025-06895-9.
Understanding relative certainty and factivity of cognitive verbs (e.g., 'think', 'know') presents a significant challenge for both typically developing (TD) and autistic children. The first aim of the current study was to examine the understanding of these two aspects of cognitive verbs among autistic children compared to their TD peers. The second aim was to explore cognitive and linguistic capacities related to the development of cognitive verb understanding. 59 autistic and 62 TD children, ages 3 to 10 years, participated in a cross-sectional design that tested the comprehension of cognitive verbs in two tasks: understanding relative certainty and understanding factivity. In addition, children were tested in three tasks that evaluated Theory of Mind (TOM), vocabulary, and syntax. Autistic children had more difficulties than their TD peers in understanding the meaning of relative certainty and factivity of cognitive verbs. This difference was shown in both preschool and school-age children. Moreover, using logistic regression models, we found that age emerged as the sole predictor for comprehending cognitive verbs in TD children. For autistic children, TOM was the exclusive predictor for explaining factivity scores, and no predictor was identified for explaining relative certainty scores. The current research reveals a distinct linguistic difference in the comprehension of cognitive verbs between autistic and TD children. The results emphasize the link between understanding cognitive verbs and TOM abilities in autistic children. These results highlight the importance of focusing on the comprehension of cognitive verbs when assessing the language of autistic children.
理解认知动词（如“认为”“知道”）的相对确定性和事实性，对正常发育（TD）儿童和自闭症儿童来说都是一项重大挑战。本研究的首要目的是，将自闭症儿童与其TD同龄人进行比较，考察他们对认知动词这两个方面的理解。第二个目的是探究与认知动词理解发展相关的认知和语言能力。59名年龄在3至10岁的自闭症儿童和62名TD儿童参与了一项横断面设计研究，该研究通过两项任务测试对认知动词的理解：理解相对确定性和理解事实性。此外，还通过三项任务对儿童进行测试，以评估心理理论（TOM）、词汇和句法。在理解认知动词的相对确定性和事实性含义方面，自闭症儿童比其TD同龄人面临更多困难。这种差异在学龄前儿童和学龄儿童中均有体现。此外，通过逻辑回归模型，我们发现年龄是TD儿童理解认知动词的唯一预测因素。对于自闭症儿童，TOM是解释事实性得分的唯一预测因素，而在解释相对确定性得分方面未发现预测因素。当前研究揭示了自闭症儿童和TD儿童在认知动词理解方面存在明显的语言差异。研究结果强调了自闭症儿童理解认知动词与TOM能力之间的联系。这些结果凸显了在评估自闭症儿童语言能力时，关注认知动词理解的重要性。
