Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.50 1350-1364 October 2007. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2007/094)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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"Listen My Children and You Shall Hear": Auditory Preferences in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Rhea Paul
Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, and Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, New Haven

Katarzyna Chawarska
Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center

Carol Fowler
Yale University, Haskins Laboratories

Domenic Cicchetti
Fred Volkmar
Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center

Contact author: Rhea Paul, Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, 40 Temple Street, #6B, New Haven, CT 06510. E-mail: rhea.paul{at}yale.edu.

Purpose: This study tests the hypothesis that toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) will show differences from contrast groups in preferences for attending to speech.

Method: This study examined auditory preferences in toddlers with ASD and matched groups of (a) typical age-mates, (b) age-mates with nonautistic developmental disabilities, and (c) younger children matched for language age. The experimental procedure measured time spent oriented to auditory stimuli that were created to exemplify language patterns that had been studied in typically developing infants.

Results: Findings suggest that toddlers with ASD show a reduced preference for child-directed speech, compared with typical age-mates, but few differences from children with nonautistic developmental disorders. Correlational analysis revealed that time spent listening to child-directed speech by children with ASD was related to their concurrent receptive language ability as well as to receptive language abilities 1 year later. This relationship did not hold for the other groups.

Conclusion: The present study supports the hypothesis that children with ASD perform differently from typical peers in auditory preference paradigms and that performance in these tasks is related to concurrent and later language development.

KEY WORDS: autism spectrum disorders, language comprehension, auditory comprehension


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