Poster #17 - Wh-Question Answering in Children with Elevated Likelihood for ASD and Language Delay

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Wh-questions are questions framed with who, what, where, when, why, or how. In 24-month-old neurotypical children, child responses to parent wh-questions are syntactically more complex than answers to other questions, and the use of wh-questions is related to positive vocabulary and verbal reasoning outcomes (Rowe et al., 2017). Seven to 14-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) produce more inappropriate answers to wh-questions than neurotypically developing peers (Oi, 2010). Difficulties with language are common in toddlers with an older sibling with ASD, who are at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (Ozonoff et al., 2011) and have higher rates of non-ASD language delay (Marrus et al., 2018) than toddlers with no family history of ASD (typical likelihood, TL). Little work has looked at the complexity of child responses to parent wh-questions in children with an elevated likelihood for ASD.

The present study aimed to address the question: How does the complexity of answers to wh-questions and other questions differ between 36-month-old TL children versus children with an elevated likelihood for ASD and other developmental delays?

Participants included three-year-old TL (n=16) and EL children with ASD (EL-ASD, n=10), non-ASD language delays (EL-LD, n=21), and typical development (EL-ND, n=37). Parent-child play sessions with a teddy bear set and barn set were videotaped for 10-13 minutes. All child and parent spoken utterances were transcribed. The complexity of child utterances was calculated in terms of mean length of utterance (MLU). Parent speech was coded to identify wh-questions and other questions. A five-second window following each question type was analyzed for child responses, allowing the MLU for each set of responses to be calculated. Child responses to parent questions were also classified based on whether they maintained and added to the topic of conversation.

There were no significant differences between outcome groups in the rate of parent wh-questions or in the rate of parent other questions (p’s >.05, Figure 1). Children in the EL-LD and EL-ASD groups had significantly shorter utterances overall in comparison to TL and EL-ND children (p’s <.01). EL-LD and EL-ASD groups also produced significantly shorter responses to both question types compared to the TL and EL-ND groups (p’s <.05, Figure 2). However, regardless of outcome group, responses to wh-questions had significantly longer MLU’s than responses to other questions (p’s <.05, Figure 2). Additionally, responses in all groups were more likely to add more information to the topic of conversation following parent wh-questions than other questions (p’s <.01).

Despite using shorter utterances overall, children in the EL-ASD and EL-LD groups generated significantly more complex responses to parents’ wh-questions compared to other questions. Findings show that parent use of wh-questions may support production of more complex responses in children with ASD and non-ASD language delays.

Authors

• Sara Westcott, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Emily Roemer Britsch, University of Pittsburgh

• Samantha Plate, University of Pittsburgh

• Jana M Iverson, Boston University