Receptive and expressive prosodic ability in children with high-functioning autism.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to identify the nature and extent of receptive and expressive prosodic deficits in children with high-functioning autism (HFA).


METHODS
Thirty-one children with HFA, 72 typically developing controls matched on verbal mental age, and 33 adults with normal speech completed the prosody assessment procedure, Profiling Elements of Prosodic Systems in Children.


RESULTS
Children with HFA performed significantly less well than controls on 11 of 12 prosody tasks (p < .005). Receptive prosodic skills showed a strong correlation (p < .01) with verbal mental age in both groups, and to a lesser extent with expressive prosodic skills. Receptive prosodic scores also correlated with expressive prosody scores, particularly in grammatical prosodic functions. Prosodic development in the HFA group appeared to be delayed in many aspects of prosody and deviant in some. Adults showed near-ceiling scores in all tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates that receptive and expressive prosodic skills are closely associated in HFA. Receptive prosodic skills would be an appropriate focus for clinical intervention, and further investigation of prosody and the relationship between prosody and social skills is warranted.
Speech and Hearing Sciences, Queen Margaret University, Clerwood Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 8TS, United Kingdom. speppe@qmu.ac.uk
Susan
S
Peppé
Joanne
J
McCann
Fiona
F
Gibbon
Anne
A
O'Hare
Marion
M
Rutherford
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D019260:Expressed Emotion / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior