Atypical processing of changes in words and pseudowords in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This study looked at how children with autism process speech sounds compared to typically developing children. Even though the autistic children had normal language skills, their brains showed different patterns when listening to changes in speech sounds like vowels and consonants. The research suggests that children with autism may have subtle differences in how they hear and process the building blocks of speech, which could affect communication even when language appears typical.

This study examined neural responses to speech sound changes in school-aged children with ASD who had typical language abilities. Using event-related potentials, researchers measured brain responses to various speech sound changes (consonant/vowel identity, vowel duration, pitch, intensity) in both real words and pseudowords. Children with ASD showed impaired speech sound encoding for both stimulus types, reduced neural discrimination of specific sound changes (vowel identity, consonant changes in pseudowords, vowel duration), and decreased involuntary attention to vowel duration changes. Despite having no apparent language impairments, these children demonstrated altered cortical processing of speech sounds, supporting theories of phonemic processing weaknesses in autism.

Results suggest subtle auditory processing differences may exist even in children with ASD who appear to have typical language abilities. Clinicians should consider comprehensive auditory processing assessments. Early intervention targeting phonemic processing skills may be beneficial for supporting communication development in autism.

Sample size not reported limits interpretation. Single study design without replication. Unclear methodology details in abstract. Limited to school-aged children without language impairments, reducing generalizability to broader autism population.

The present study explored the neural basis of speech perception in school-aged children with ASD but without language impairments and typically developing control children. Event related potentials reflecting stimulus encoding, discrimination, and orientation were recorded to five different speech sound changes (consonant or vowel identity, vowel duration, fundamental frequency, intensity) in carefully matched words and pseudowords. Perceptual discrimination of prosodic changes was assessed with a behavioral test. Impaired speech sound encoding was found for both word and pseudoword stimuli in children with ASD.

Reduced neural discrimination of vowel identity changes, consonant changes in pseudowords and vowel duration changes in both words and pseudowords were found in children with ASD. Also, reduced involuntary attention shifting to changes in vowel duration was found in children with ASD. Results indicate altered speech-sound encoding and reduced cortical discrimination of and orienting to speech-sound changes in complex word-level speech stimuli in school-aged children with ASD but without language impairments. The results support the theories suggesting weaknesses in phonemic processing in ASD.