The communicative function of question production in autistic children

✍ Scribed by Richard Hurtig; Susan Ensrud; J. Bruce Tomblin

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 681 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/bf01531674

✦ Synopsis

Six children diagnosed as autistic and who also were reported to be using questions inappropriately in their conversations with adults were each placed in a conversational context in which the adult responses to their questions were systematically varied. The dependent variable was the occurrence and amount of appropriate conversational continuation associated with each type of adult response. Differential listener response did affect the occurrence of conversational continuation and to a lesser degree the amount of continuation. These data were interpreted to support the hypothesis that repetitive questioning in this population serves the communicative function of conversation initiation. Furthermore, it appears that the autistic conversants lack the conversational management skills to maintain the conversation following the listener's answer to the question.

The communication deficits in the autistic population have received a considerable amount of attention in recent years. Kanner (1943) relegated these deficits to a secondary role in his early accounts of autism. However, they are now seen as central for clinical management by most investigators.