Answering contextually demanding questions: Pragmatic errors produced by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2006.10.001
• Publication Date: 2006-11-29T16:26:52Z
• Authors: Soile Loukusa; Eeva Leinonen; Katja Jussila; Marja-Leena Mattila; Nuala Ryder; Hanna Ebeling; Irma Moilanen
• Keywords: Male; demanding; asperger; Concept Formation; Intelligence; autism; Aptitude; functioning; produced; children; errors; Humans; Language Development Disorders; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Asperger Syndrome; Autistic Disorder; questions; Child; answering; Verbal Behavior; Communication; 4. Education; 05 social sciences; high; syndrome; 400; Pattern Recognition, Visual; contextually; Speech Perception; Female; Comprehension; pragmatic

This study examined irrelevant/incorrect answers produced by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism (7-9-year-olds and 10-12-year-olds) and normally developing children (7-9-year-olds). The errors produced were divided into three types: in Type 1, the child answered the original question incorrectly, in Type 2, the child gave a correct answer, but when asked a follow-up question, he/she explained the answer incorrectly, and in Type 3, the child first gave a correct answer or explanation, but continued answering, which ultimately led to an irrelevant answer. Analyses of Type 1 and 2 errors indicated that all the children tried to utilize contextual information, albeit incorrectly. Analyses of Type 3 errors showed that topic drifts were almost non-existent in the control group, but common in the clinical group, suggesting that these children had difficulties in stopping processing after deriving a relevant answer.The reader becomes aware of the different instances which may lead to the irrelevance of answers and get knowledge about features of answers of children with AS/HFA.