Parental Use of Generics Predicts Categorization Abilities in Typically Developing Children and Children with ASD

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

For typically developing (TD) children and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), rich language input from caregivers facilitates language development (Fusaroli et el., 2019). Generic statements (e.g., kittens like playing with string) refer to an entire class of referents, and thus have the potential to influence children’s semantic category knowledge. Although caregivers produce generics at low rates, their variability correlates with child usage (Gelman et al., 2014); moreover, in experimental contexts, adult generics promote children’s formation and awareness of categories (Gelman & Roberts, 2017). As category formation and awareness have been found to differ in individuals with ASD (Church et al., 2010; Gastgeb et al., 2006; Ellawadi et al., 2016), examining naturalistic caregiver input for generic statements may give insight into root differences in these skills. In this project we examine how frequently caregivers produce generics in at-home situations when interacting with children with ASD or TD and investigate how this production varies by type of generic (e.g., generics about physical properties or personal preferences).

As part of a longitudinal study, 65 parent-toddler dyads participated in home-based thirty-minute, semi-structured play sessions. TD (n=35; MAge=20.29 (1.7) months) and ASD (n=30; MAge=32.88(5.5) months) groups were initially matched on receptive language (t(63)=1.19,p=.24). Three, semi-structured, in-home play sessions over the course of two years were recorded and coded for types of generics used by parents (liking generics “Mommy doesn’t like snakes”, saying generics, “snakes say hiss hiss”, physical generics “snakes have long tails” and other generics not fitting one of those categories). Approximately three years later, a subset (TD: n= 23 ASD: n=17) of the children participated in a test of categorization ability involving typical, somewhat typical, and atypical exemplars of a category.

As expected, (Gelman, 2003), overall use of generics by parents was low, but did not differ between groups. Production was also stable over time given this stable context (see Table 1). The two groups also performed similarly on the categorization task, with no group differences seen on accuracy for typical and somewhat typical exemplars (t(38)=.89;t(38)=.79). However, the TD group (M=.76,SD=.14) was significantly more accurate at categorizing atypical exemplars than the ASD group (M=.64,SD=.16;t(38)=2.4,p=.021). For TD children, the total number of generics used by their parents during the second session correlated with their categorization of typical exemplars (r=.46,p=.04); for children with ASD, overall caregiver use of generics as well as use of physical generics during the 3rd session positively correlated with their performance with atypical exemplars (r=.54,p=.04 and r=.564,p=.04 respectively). Overall maternal lexical diversity was not related to categorization ability in either group.

Although infrequent, parent-produced generics may nonetheless provide toddlers with important guidance for thinking about categories; such guidance is not attributable to the lexical diversity of input on its own. Our findings show that parental use of generics may facilitate prototype formation in TD children; furthermore, for children with ASD, parental use of physical generics in toddlerhood may call attention to physical traits of a category, promoting better acceptance of category diversity later in childhood.

Authors

• Lee Tecoulesco, Boys Town National Research Hospital
  Presenting Author

• Jenna Lame, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Letitia R Naigles, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author