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An alternative view of pronominal errors in autistic children

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Abstract

Persistent pronominal errors in autistic children have been attributed either to a psychosocial deficit or to a linguistic or cognitive deficit. However, recent studies of normal children suggest that the failure to observe pronouns in speech addressed to another person is a major reason children show pronominal errors. The present study investigated if pronominal errors in autistic children can be explained by this alternative hypothesis. Children's attentiveness to the pronoun models and their imitative behaviors were examined under two modeling conditions. The nonaddressee condition provided children with systematic opportunities to observe pronoun models directed to another person as well as those directed to themselves. The addressee condition provided only systematic opportunities to observe pronoun models directed to children. Clear evidence for the alternative hypothesis was obtained for second person pronouns, suggesting that pronominal errors in autistic children can be interpreted within the framework of normal language development.

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Douglas Hospital

This study was supported by a special fund from the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University to Yuriko Oshima-Takane, and by grant #A6394 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to Yoshio Takane. Preparation of this paper was also supported by a Postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Yuriko Oshima-Takane. We thank Andrew Baker, Elizabeth Cole, Susanne McKenzie, and Thomas Shultz for their helpful comments and Carmella Ranellucci, Sandra Wesley, Marie Poisson, and Viviane Sziklas for their assistance in collecting the data. We also thank the children for their cooperation in this study.

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Oshima-Takane, Y., Benaroya, S. An alternative view of pronominal errors in autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord 19, 73–85 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02212719

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