Our research investigates sign language development in children with ASD. Previous research has shown that signing children with ASD produce unique or idiosyncratic errors such as palm orientation reversals, which may indicate differences in how children with ASD imitate body movements. In this study, we ask if a sample of signing children with ASD produces more of these reversal errors than typically-developing deaf children on a fingerspelling task.
44 signing children, all of Deaf parents and exposed to American Sign Language from birth, were asked to fingerspell 15 English words presented on an iPad. Videos of the fingerspelling productions were then coded for errors in palm orientation.
Children with ASD produced significantly more palm orientation reversals than typical deaf children (p < .05). The two groups did not differ in the total number of fingerspelled letters they produced or in the total number of errors they produced, showing that reversal errors are a unique feature of signing children with ASD. As it is a unique feature, palm orientation reversals may be a sign-specific indication of ASD in deaf children. In the future, we hope to identify the cognitive profile of these children as a subset of children with ASD.
As future speech-language pathologists, working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder makes up a large portion of our field. This research provides deeper insight into how children with autism develop language and how they process language visually. Learning this information may shape our approaches as clinicians in the future interventions we choose for our clients.
Authors: Callie Gnam, Nicole Bennie, Paige Gerenz, Emily Blackburn, & Allora Hern
Faculty Advisor: Aaron Shield, Ph.D., Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology
Graduate Student Advisors: Ren Ferris & Shelby Miller, Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology
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