Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

An Eye Tracking Investigation Of The Pragmatic Language Comprehension Abilities Of Children With Autism, Kristina Curro

Doctoral Dissertations

Autism is a disorder of the comprehension and use of pragmatic language. Children with autism often display heterogeneous patterns of language ability even when language is considered a strength. This real-time analysis is a partial replication of Sedivy et al. (1999) who found evidence for incremental processing of pragmatic language in real-time with adults. This investigation focused on prosodic focus and scalar adjective comprehension in children with and without autism. Results show that children with autism successfully interpret prosodic focus when interpreting intersective adjectives but show processing delays in interpreting scalar adjectives. Implications for pragmatic language processing differences between children …

Visual Perspective Taking In Autism Spectrum Disorders, Erin L. Reilly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty in recognizing environmental perspectives other than their own. Perspective-taking deficits impact language use and understanding in discourse and more general social and cognitive function. Despite extensive research on perspective taking abilities in individuals with ASD, many factors have not been fully examined. This study further examined the contribution of angular disparity, anthropomorphism of an observer, and language use on visual perspective-taking.

Individuals with (ASD) demonstrate a strength in visual spatial cognition and a weakness in visual social cognition. This study examined the factors that may cause people with ASD to have difficulties …

Development Of An Aba Tool Kit For Audiologists To Increase Hearing Aid Wear Time In Individuals With Autism, Lindsay Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When working with individuals with the dual-diagnosis of hearing loss and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), audiologists are often faced with unique challenges and must adapt their approach in order to more effectively address the needs of these individuals. Currently, there is only a small body of research focused on the special considerations required for appropriately fitting and utilizing amplification for children with the dual-diagnosis of hearing loss and ASD. Subsequently, recommendations and strategies for clinicians to implement when faced with these common challenges, specifically of hearing aid compliance and appropriate hearing aid wear time, are lacking. It is important to …

Wernicke’S Area In Autism: Rsfmri Study, Sydney Osbarn

Honors Theses

We investigated the functional connectivity of Wernicke’s Area and its right homologue (Planum Temporale) in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typically developing individuals. We used resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging to analyze these areas in 145 participants from The University of Michigan via ABIDE. As a retest sample, we also used data from a University of Pittsburgh cohort. There is weakened functional connectivity between Wernicke’s Area and Planum Temporale in individuals with ASD as opposed to typically developing individuals. Participants with ASD did not have greater connectivity in other regions compared to the control group. Pragmatics, nonverbalism, …

Acoustic And Perceptual Characteristics Of Prosody In Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Impact Of Language, Motor Speech, And Auditory Processing, Colleen Gargan

Doctoral Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects an individual’s social communication, social interaction, and behavior (American Psychological Association, 2013). A striking feature that distinguishes some individuals with autism from their peers without autism is “atypical” prosody. A between-group study was conducted to investigate prosody, speech motor control, auditory processing of pitch, and trained listener ratings of prosodic “naturalness” among adolescents with ASD (n=17) compared to TD controls (n=17) matched for age, gender and language. The specific aims of this study were to: (1) determine if individuals with ASD have significant acoustic-perceptual differences in their receptive and …

Social Conformity And The Line Judgement Task For Adolescents With Asd, Jamie Mcclendon

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The primary intent of this study is to add to the growing research regarding social functioning and theory of mind (ToM) of young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study takes into account the Solomon Asch line judgement tasks effect on peer pressure and social conformity. Previous research has shown that there is a discrepancy in the conformity exhibited by typically developing individuals (TD) and ASD individuals. This study seeks to address the degree to which ASD individuals are affected by social influence and how likely they will be to conform. Conformity rates will be compared to that of …