Title:
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Word learning in non-ostensive contexts : evidence from children with autism
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Social-pragmatic accounts of word learning focus on the roles of joint attention (JA)
and intention reading (IR) when acquiring new words (Bloom, 2001; Tomasello,
2003). These key social-pragmatic skills are known to be impaired in autism and have
been linked to their language difficulties. Although thought to be important in non-ostensive
contexts, previous research has provided inconsistent findings concerning
the word-learning ability of children with autism (CWA) in these contexts (Franken,
Lewis, & Malone, 2010; Parish-Morris, Hennon, Hirsh-Pasek, Michnick Golinkoff, &
Tager-Flusberg, 2007). This thesis explores the mechanisms that CWA use when
word-learning by drawing upon three non-ostensive paradigms. Word comprehension
and production is related to the use of social-pragmatic skills and more general skills,
teasing apart the attentional learning account (Smith, Jones & Landau, 1996) and
social-pragmatic account (Tomasello, 2003) of language development.
CW A were able to learn words at the same level as typically developing
children (TDC) and children with moderate learning disabilities (MLDC) in
paradigms thought to draw upon IR. Findings pointed to the use of mechanisms
alternative to those used by typically developing children (TDC), with these
developing through experience and cognitive development. Rather than relying on
interpreting the speaker's communicative intentions to learn words, CWA are able to
make use of attentional salience (as determined through novelty) or logical reasoning
to discern the referent object. It is suggested that these alternative mechanisms are
utilised in a confirmatory manner. Specifically, CWA make use of their impaired
social-pragmatic skills in order to discern the referent, with the identification of this
referent supported by these alternative mechanisms which also highlight the referent
object. The findings of these studies have been combined to provide an alternative
account of how CW A are able to learn words, thus accounting for their unpredicted
word-learning ability.
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