First- and second-person pronoun comprehension in autistic and nonautistic children

Jonet Artis*, Rhiannon Luyster, Lily Carroll, Angela He, Sudha Arunachalam

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to conferenceConference posterpeer-review

    Abstract

    Autistic children are more likely than nonautistic children to produce personal pronoun errors. However, we know less about their comprehension of personal pronouns. This study examines their comprehension of personal pronouns within an experimental design. The children completed an activity focused on demonstrating comprehension of the first-person pronoun “my”, and second person pronoun “your”, both when it referred to the child and when it referred to someone else. Our findings indicate that both nonautistic and autistic children demonstrate an understanding of the first-person “my” pronoun and second-person “your” pronoun when it refers to the child. Both groups struggled more with “your” when it did not refer to themselves; however, while nonautistic children still performed above chance in this condition, autistic children were at chance. Thus, this study parallels prior work, highlighting similarities between the two groups and suggesting that autistic children have all-around lower rates of success but not categorical differences in pronoun knowledge.
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication statusPublished - 2 Jun 2023
    EventThe Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders 2023 - Monona Terrace Convention Center, Madison, United States
    Duration: 1 Jun 20233 Jun 2023
    https://srcldconference.com/
    https://srcldconference.com/program/schedule/

    Conference

    ConferenceThe Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders 2023
    Abbreviated title2023 SRCLD
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityMadison
    Period1/06/233/06/23
    Internet address

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