How children with autism and Asperger syndrome respond to questions: An ethnographic study.

摘要

In light of a well documented deficit in theory of mind (ToM) found in high functioning individuals with autism (HFA) and Asperger Syndrome (AS), this ethnographic study explores HFA and AS children's social-cognitive understanding of other people as reflected in their linguistic performance when answering mundane, everyday questions their family members pose during dinnertime interaction. Drawing from naturalistic video-recorded data, this study analyzes the children's abilities in 'reading' speakers' communicative intentions, knowledge, and beliefs which are embedded in questions, and in adjusting their responses accordingly.;The children in the study produced responses to 85% of the questions, demonstrating a strong socio-cultural knowledge that when a question is asked, one is expected to answer it. 75% of the responses were adequate, displaying the children's ability to detect their interlocutors' communicative intentions and produce relevant answers.;Surprisingly, the children who passed only the first order and children who passed the second order ToM tasks did not differ in their performance on question/answer sequences, suggesting that first order representations are sufficient for recognizing intentions embedded in an interlocutor's question. The AS children demonstrated somewhat better skills than the HFA children in responding to family members' questions. They adequately responded to complex questions which required higher cognitive processes in producing an answer, and appeared to have better linguistic skills.;Documenting the children in their natural settings illuminated how the home environment afforded the HFA and AS children's sociability and successful interaction. This study suggests that the HFA and AS children were able to fathom questions in part because family members were very familiar interlocutors. In addition, this study shows that family members were tolerant and accepting of the children's inadequate communicative behavior, encouraging them to maintain conversation and continue responding to questions. Moreover, the family members used a variety of strategies to increase communicative interaction with their children.