title: Children with Autism Understand Indirect Speech Acts: Evidence from a Semi-Structured Act-Out Task.
abstract: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are often said to present a global pragmatic impairment. However, there is some observational evidence that context-based comprehension of indirect requests may be preserved in autism. In order to provide experimental confirmation to this hypothesis, indirect speech act comprehension was tested in a group of 15 children with autism between 7 and 12 years and a group of 20 typically developing children between 2:7 and 3:6 years. The aim of the study was to determine whether children with autism can display genuinely contextual understanding of indirect requests. The experiment consisted of a three-pronged semi-structured task involving Mr Potato Head. In the first phase a declarative sentence was uttered by one adult as an instruction to put a garment on a Mr Potato Head toy; in the second the same sentence was uttered as a comment on a picture by another speaker; in the third phase the same sentence was uttered as a comment on a picture by the first speaker. Children with autism complied with the indirect request in the first phase and demonstrated the capacity to inhibit the directive interpretation in phases 2 and 3. TD children had some difficulty in understanding the indirect instruction in phase 1. These results call for a more nuanced view of pragmatic dysfunction in autism.
authors.affiliation: Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kissine
authors.affiliation: Centre de Ressource Autisme de l'Université libre de Bruxelles-'Autrement', Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cano-Chervel
authors.affiliation: Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.|Centre de Ressource Autisme de l'Université libre de Bruxelles-'Autrement', Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.affiliation: Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Brabanter
authors.affiliation: Centre de Ressource Autisme de l'Université libre de Bruxelles-'Autrement', Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ducenne
authors.affiliation: Centre de Ressource Autisme de l'Université libre de Bruxelles-'Autrement', Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marie-Charlotte
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Pairon
authors.affiliation: Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.|Centre de Ressource Autisme de l'Université libre de Bruxelles-'Autrement', Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Deconinck
authors.affiliation: Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.|Centre de Ressource Autisme de l'Université libre de Bruxelles-'Autrement', Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants Reine Fabiola, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Delvenne
authors.affiliation: Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leybaert
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception