Lexical Processing in Toddlers with ASD: Does Weak Central Coherence Play a Role?

ABSTRACT: This study investigated whether vocabulary delays in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be explained by a cognitive style that prioritizes processing of detailed, local features of input over global contextual integration-as claimed by the weak central coherence (WCC) theory. Thirty toddlers with ASD and 30 younger, cognition-matched typical controls participated in a looking-while-listening task that assessed whether perceptual or semantic similarities among named images disrupted word recognition relative to a neutral condition. Overlap of perceptual features invited local processing whereas semantic overlap invited global processing. With the possible exception of a subset of toddlers who had very low vocabulary skills, these results provide no evidence that WCC is charac

SUBMITTER: Ellis Weismer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5112116 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature