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Syntax and Morphology in Danish-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

The current study examined delays in syntax and morphology, and vocabulary, in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children ages 4–6 years with ASD (n = 21) and typical development (n = 21), matched on nonverbal mental age, completed five language tasks. The ASD group had significant delays in both syntax and morphology, and vocabulary measures, with significant within-group heterogeneity; furthermore, syntactic and morphological measures were impaired even for subgroups matched on vocabulary. Children in the ASD group without early language delay showed syntactic and morphological impairment, with intact performance on vocabulary and sentence repetition. Findings indicate that syntactic and morphological impairments are a significant concern for high-functioning children with ASD, and may be overlooked if language evaluation focuses exclusively on vocabulary.

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Notes

  1. The main difference between ICD-10 criteria for Childhood Autism and DSM-5 criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder is that the two first subcriteria of ICD-10, (a) deficits within social interaction, and (b) deficits within language and communication, have been collapsed into the first subcriterion of DSM-5: deficits within social-communication and social interaction. All children diagnosed with ICD-10 Childhood Autism in this study would qualify for a diagnosis of DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder.

  2. The similarities between Danish and English grammar made a relatively direct translation viable. The main morphological differences are that Danish does not have present progressive and third person marking, but does mark nouns for gender. As such, items testing present progressive and third person marking were removed. The publisher prohibited the inclusion of any additional items, so the CELF did not include items measuring gender marking on nouns; this marking is acquired very early. An additional difference is that Danish has no rules for copula contraction; thus, items testing this structure were also removed. The translated version thus measures nearly all the relevant Danish morphemes. As for syntactic differences between Danish and English, in some Danish sentences (e.g., those introduced by an adverbial phrase), the verb precedes the subject. In the subtest Sentence Structure, there were no cases of this “inverted” word order, and thus all translations were straightforward. Only one item was removed from Sentence Structure, due to semantic differences. Altogether, the translated version was thought to be useful for measuring morphosyntactic knowledge of Danish.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participating children, parents, daycare centers, and the student assistants who helped in the study.

Funding

This research was funded by Aarhus University and supported in part by two grants from Augustinus Fonden (09-2372; 10-1366) and one from Fru C. Hermansens Mindelegat (00962-0001) to the first author, and by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF93) to the last author. The LEGO Foundation also provided funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Cecilia Brynskov & Peter Krøjgaard

  2. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA

    Inge-Marie Eigsti

  3. Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

    Meta Jørgensen & Sanne Lemcke

  4. Department of English, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Ocke-Schwen Bohn

  5. Center on Autobiographical Memory Research, Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Ocke-Schwen Bohn & Peter Krøjgaard

Authors
  1. Cecilia Brynskov
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  2. Inge-Marie Eigsti
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  3. Meta Jørgensen
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  4. Sanne Lemcke
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  5. Ocke-Schwen Bohn
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  6. Peter Krøjgaard
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Correspondence to Cecilia Brynskov.

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Author Contributions

Study conception and design: Brynskov, Eigsti, Krøjgaard, Bohn; Acquisition of data: Brynskov, Jorgensen, Lemcke; Analysis and interpretation of data: Brynskov, Eigsti; Drafting of manuscript: Brynskov; Critical revision: Brynskov, Eigsti.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Brynskov, C., Eigsti, IM., Jørgensen, M. et al. Syntax and Morphology in Danish-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 373–383 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2962-7

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