Background & aimsThroughout typical development, children prioritize different perceptual, social, and linguistic cues to learn words. The earliest acquired words are often those that are perceptually salient and highly imageable. Imageability, the ease in which a word evokes a mental image, is a strong predictor for word age of acquisition in typically developing (TD) children, independent of other lexicosemantic features such as word frequency. However, little is known about the effects of imageability in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who tend to have differences in linguistic processing and delayed language acquisition compared to their TD peers. This study explores the extent to which imageability and word frequency are associated with early noun and verb acquisition in children with ASD.MethodsSecondary analyses were conducted on previously collected data of 156 children (78 TD, 78 ASD) matched on sex and parent-reported language level. Total expressive vocabulary, as measured by the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI), included 123 words (78 nouns, 45 verbs) that overlapped with previously published imageability ratings and word input frequencies. A two-step hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the relationship between word input frequency, imageability, and total expressive vocabulary. An F-test was then used to assess the unique contribution of imageability on total expressive vocabulary when controlling for word input frequency.ResultsIn both the TD and ASD groups, imageability uniquely explained a portion of the variance in total expressive vocabulary size, independent of word input frequency. Notably, imageability was significantly associated with noun vocabulary and verb vocabulary size alone, with imageability explaining a greater portion of the variance in total nouns produced than in total verbs produced.ConclusionsImageability was identified as a significant lexicosemantic feature for describing expressive vocabulary size in children with ASD. Consistent with literature on TD children, children with ASD who have small vocabularies primarily produce words that are highly imageable. Children who are more proficient word learners with larger vocabularies produce words that are less imageable, indicating a potential shift away from reliance on perceptual-based language processing. This was consistent across both noun and verb vocabularies.ImplicationsOur findings contribute to a growing body of literature describing early word learning in children with ASD and provide a basis for exploring the use of multisensory language learning strategies.

中文翻译：

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词语形象能力与自闭症谱系障碍儿童的表达词汇有关

背景和目标在整个典型发展过程中，儿童会优先考虑不同的感知、社会和语言线索来学习单词。最早习得的词通常是那些在感知上显着且易于想象的词。形象性，即单词唤起心理形象的难易程度，是典型发育 (TD) 儿童习得单词年龄的有力预测指标，与其他词汇语义特征（如单词频率）无关。然而，关于自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 儿童的想象能力的影响知之甚少，与 TD 同龄人相比，他们在语言处理和语言习得方面往往存在差异。本研究探讨了自闭症儿童的形象性和词频与早期名词和动词习得的关联程度。方法对之前收集的 156 名儿童（78 TD，78 ASD）的性别和父母报告的语言水平相匹配的数据进行了二次分析。根据麦克阿瑟·贝茨交际发展量表 (MB-CDI) 衡量的总表达词汇量，包括 123 个单词（78 个名词，45 个动词），与之前公布的形象能力评级和单词输入频率重叠。使用两步分层线性回归来检查单词输入频率、图像能力和总表达词汇量之间的关系。然后使用 F 检验来评估在控制单词输入频率时可想象性对总表达词汇量的独特贡献。结果在 TD 和 ASD 组中，可想象性独特地解释了总表达词汇量的一部分差异，与单词输入频率无关。值得注意的是，形象性与名词词汇量和动词词汇量单独显着相关，形象性解释了产生的总名词的​​变异比产生的动词总数的更大​​部分差异。自闭症谱系障碍。与关于 TD 儿童的文献一致，患有 ASD 的儿童词汇量小，主要是说出容易想象的词。词汇量更大的单词学习者更熟练的孩子会说出更难想象的单词，这表明他们可能会摆脱对基于感知的语言处理的依赖。这在名词和动词词汇表中都是一致的。