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

Loukusa, S., Leinonen, E., Jussila, K., Mattila, M-L, Ryder, N., Ebeling, H. and Moilanen, I. (2007) Answering contextually demanding questions: Pragmatic errors produced by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. Journal of Communication Disorders, 40 (5). pp. 357-381.

Abstract

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.

Learning outcomes: 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.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Copyright:	© 2006 Elsevier Inc
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/34773

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