Enhanced pitch discrimination in autistic children with unexpected bilingualism.
autism
enhanced auditory perception
language acquisition
low‐level processing
screen exposure
unexpected bilingualism
Journal
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research
ISSN: 1939-3806
Titre abrégé: Autism Res
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101461858
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
26 Aug 2024
26 Aug 2024
Historique:
received:
03
06
2024
accepted:
07
08
2024
medline:
27
8
2024
pubmed:
27
8
2024
entrez:
27
8
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Some autistic children acquire foreign languages from exposure to screens. Such unexpected bilingualism (UB) is therefore not driven by social interaction, rather, language acquisition appears to rely on less socially mediated learning and other cognitive processes. We hypothesize that UB children may rely on other cues, such as acoustic cues, of the linguistic input. Previous research indicates enhanced pitch processing in some autistic children, often associated with language delays and difficulties in forming stable phonological categories due to sensitivity to subtle linguistic variations. We propose that repetitive screen-based input simplifies linguistic complexity, allowing focus on individual cues. This study hypothesizes that autistic UB children exhibit superior pitch discrimination compared with both autistic and non-autistic peers. From a sample of 46 autistic French-speaking children aged 9 to 16, 12 were considered as UB. These children, along with 45 non-autistic children, participated in a two-alternative forced-choice pitch discrimination task. They listened to pairs of pure tones, 50% of which differed by 3% (easy), 2% (medium), or 1% (hard). A stringent comparison of performance revealed that only the autistic UB group performed above chance for tone pairs that differed, across all conditions. This group demonstrated superior pitch discrimination relative to autistic and non-autistic peers. This study establishes the phenomenon of UB in autism and provides evidence for enhanced pitch discrimination in this group. Acute perception of auditory information, combined with repeated language content, may facilitate UB children's focus on phonetic features, and help acquire a language with no communicative support or motivation.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique
ID : 4003675
Organisme : NIH NIDCD 1R01DC021564-01
Organisme : Marie-Margueritte Delacroix fundings
ID : RVC/B-476
Organisme : NIMH R01MH112687-01A1
Informations de copyright
© 2024 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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