《Chinese Journal of Rehabilitation Theory and Practice》 ›› 2023, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (1): 1-5.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-9771.2023.01.001

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial language understanding and expression in children with autism: a study of “(go/come) to” sentence in Chinese

YUE Jiaojiao1, LIU Qiaoyun1(), LIU Min1, LU Haidan1, ZHAO Hang1, LI Ping2, ZHANG Yan3   

  1. 1. Department of Rehabilitation Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
    2. Shanghai Putuo District Qixing School, Shanghai 200061, China
    3. Jing'an School of Education, Shanghai 200040, China
  • Received:2022-12-30 Revised:2023-01-12 Published:2023-01-25 Online:2023-02-17
  • Contact: LIU Qiaoyun, E-mail: qyliu@spe.ecnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Program of China(2022YFC2705201);Shanghai Changning District Health Committee Project(2019CNECNUPI05-1);Shanghai Pujiang Program(2019PJC033);National Language Commission Research Plan(YB145-21)

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the characteristics of spatial orientation language comprehension and expression behavior of children with autism.

Methods A three-ladder test was designed to test the comprehension and expression of "(go/come) to" sentences, including general subject-predicate sentences, conjunctive-predicate sentences with displacement purposes, and conjunctive-predicate sentences with displacement modes. March to June, 2022, the test was conducted on 17 children with autism from a special education school and 17 healthy children matched the scores of Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Chinese revised from a kindergarten. The typical errors were analyzed for children with autism.

Results The main effects of sentence ladders (F > 3.718, P < 0.05) and children groups (F > 8.782, P < 0.001) were significant on comprehension and expression of sentences, while the performance was poor for the complex sentences and for the children with autism. The common types of errors in expression were missing components, mixed sentences, autonomous sentences, inaccurate wording, inconsistent content, blending errors and non-response. The numbers and the distribution of error types were quite different from the children with autism to the healthy children.

Conclusion Children with autism are more difficult to understand and express "(go/come) to" sentences, mainly manifested in a higher error frequency and more kinds of error.

Key words: autism, language, spatial sentence, comprehension, expression

CLC Number: