Investigating the Mechanisms Driving Referent Selection and Retention in Toddlers at Typical and Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal article

From their first year of life, neurotypical children learn words rapidly and with apparent ease. However, many autistic children experience delays in language development and struggle to acquire vocabulary. To learn a word, children must identify the intended referent (referent selection) and then store the word-referent association in memory for later retrieval (retention). In light of recent evidence that referent selection and retention mechanisms are unimpaired in autism, difficulties acq...

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Authors: GLIGA, T; SKOLNICK, A; LIERSCH, U; CHARMAN, T; JOHNSON, MH

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Journal of Child Language
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1024-1036
• Publication date: 2021-07-06
• DOI: 10.1017/s0305000921000416
• EISSN: 1469-7602
• ISSN: 0305-0009
• Language: English
• Keywords: Language development; Autism spectrum disorder; Word (group theory); Verbal learning; Artificial intelligence; Autism; Linguistics; Selection (genetic algorithm); Developmental psychology; Object (grammar); Cognitive psychology; Psychology; Cognition; Referent