Further defining the language impairment of autism: Is there a specific language impairment subtype?

doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2008.01.002

Journal of Communication Disorders

Volume 41, Issue 4, July–August 2008, Pages 319-336

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2008.01.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

Some children with autism demonstrate poor nonword repetition—a deficit considered to be a psycholinguistic marker of specific language impairment (SLI). The present study examined whether there is an SLI subtype among children with autism. We compared the language abilities of children with SLI (n = 34, M age = 11;10 S.D. = 2;3), and children with autism with (Apoor, n = 18, M age = 10;11 S.D. = 3;1) and without (Aapp, n = 16, M age = 10;8 S.D. = 2;7) structural language difficulties. Participants were administered battery of standardized language and memory tests. Although there were some similarities in the language profile of the SLI and Apoor groups, the two groups differed on the tests of oromotor ability and verbal short-term memory and showed a different pattern of errors on the nonword repetition task. These findings providing evidence against the idea of an SLI subtype in autism. Further analyses suggested that the nonword repetition deficits experienced by some children with autism may arise when there is substantial impairment in multiple autistic domains.

Learning outcomes: Readers will be introduced to (a) the current state of behavioral, cognitive and genetic research that has investigated the relation between SLI and autism, and (b) three hypotheses of why there exists similarity in the language characteristics of children with SLI and autism. Readers will then be taken through a detailed comparison of the language and memory abilities of group of children with each diagnosis. A theoretical model that seeks to explain the relation between these two disorders will be discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

In total, 68 children participated in this study: 34 children with SLI (10 female and 24 male) and 34 children with autism (1 female and 33 males).

Children in the SLI group were aged between 6 and 15 years and were recruited from special schools for children with language impairment or support units in mainstream schools. Children were included in this group if they (1) performed below the 10th percentile on at least two of the following standardized tests: Test for Reception of

Results

Standard scores were computed for participants’ performance on each task. Standard scores on the MLUw (ERRNI) and the TROG-E were based around a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, while standard scores for the NEPSY tasks and the CCC-2 subscales were based around a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. Prior to comparing data between groups, univariate normality (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test of normality, p < .05) was tested for the four groups’ performance on each behavioral task, as

Discussion

Poor nonword repetition is considered a psycholinguistic marker of SLI (Bishop et al., 1996, Conti-Ramsden et al., 2001). The finding that some children with autism also have deficits in nonword repetition (Kjelgaard & Tager-Flusberg, 2001) has stimulated interest in whether there is a subgroup of children with autism who show a neurocognitive phenotype that is similar to children with SLI. The current study investigated this position (Hypothesis 1) and two alternative possibilities for nonword

Acknowledgments

The research was supported by grant from National Alliance for Autism Research-Autism Speaks. Thank you to Tim Jones, Helen Flanagan, Tracy O’Donnell, David McDonald and Liz Line for their help during the testing phase of this project. Sincerest thanks to Emma Jaquet for her invaluable comments on draft versions of this manuscript. A special thanks to all children and their parents who selflessly gave up their time to participate.

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Further defining the language impairment of autism: Is there a specific language impairment subtype?

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgments

American Journal of Human Genetics

Journal of Memory and Language

American Journal of Human Genetics

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Clinical Neuroscience Research

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders

Heritable risk factors associated with language impairments

Genes, Brain and Behavior

Is specific language impairment a valid diagnostic category? Genetic and psycholinguistic evidence

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, series B

Uncommon understanding: development and disorders of language comprehension in children

Children's communication checklist—2

Expression, reception and recall of narrative instrument

Test for reception of grammar: Electronic

Are phonological processing deficits part of the broad autism phenotype?

American Journal of Medical Genetics: (Neuropsychiatric Genetics)

Nonword repetition as a behavioural marker for inherited language impairment: Evidence from a twin study

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Autistic traits in the general population: a twin study

Archives of General Psychiatry

Psycholinguistic markers for specific language impairment (SLI)

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Subtypes of pervasive developmental disorder: clinical characteristics

Child Neuropsychology