Enhanced pitch discrimination in autistic children with unexpected bilingualism / Marie BELENGER ; Inge-Marie EIGSTI ; Mikhail KISSINE in Autism Research, 17-9 (September 2024)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 17-9 (September 2024) . - p.1844-1852 Titre : Enhanced pitch discrimination in autistic children with unexpected bilingualism Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Marie BELENGER, Auteur ; Inge-Marie EIGSTI, Auteur ; Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1844-1852 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism  enhanced auditory perception  language acquisition  low-level processing  screen exposure  unexpected bilingualism Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Abstract Some autistic children acquire foreign languages from exposure to screens. Such unexpected bilingualism (UB) is therefore not driven by social interaction, rather, language acquisition appears to rely on less socially mediated learning and other cognitive processes. We hypothesize that UB children may rely on other cues, such as acoustic cues, of the linguistic input. Previous research indicates enhanced pitch processing in some autistic children, often associated with language delays and difficulties in forming stable phonological categories due to sensitivity to subtle linguistic variations. We propose that repetitive screen-based input simplifies linguistic complexity, allowing focus on individual cues. This study hypothesizes that autistic UB children exhibit superior pitch discrimination compared with both autistic and non-autistic peers. From a sample of 46 autistic French-speaking children aged 9 to 16, 12 were considered as UB. These children, along with 45 non-autistic children, participated in a two-alternative forced-choice pitch discrimination task. They listened to pairs of pure tones, 50% of which differed by 3% (easy), 2% (medium), or 1% (hard). A stringent comparison of performance revealed that only the autistic UB group performed above chance for tone pairs that differed, across all conditions. This group demonstrated superior pitch discrimination relative to autistic and non-autistic peers. This study establishes the phenomenon of UB in autism and provides evidence for enhanced pitch discrimination in this group. Acute perception of auditory information, combined with repeated language content, may facilitate UB children's focus on phonetic features, and help acquire a language with no communicative support or motivation. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3221 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=535 [article] Enhanced pitch discrimination in autistic children with unexpected bilingualism [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Marie BELENGER, Auteur ; Inge-Marie EIGSTI, Auteur ; Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur . - p.1844-1852. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 17-9 (September 2024) . - p.1844-1852 Mots-clés : autism  enhanced auditory perception  language acquisition  low-level processing  screen exposure  unexpected bilingualism Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Abstract Some autistic children acquire foreign languages from exposure to screens. Such unexpected bilingualism (UB) is therefore not driven by social interaction, rather, language acquisition appears to rely on less socially mediated learning and other cognitive processes. We hypothesize that UB children may rely on other cues, such as acoustic cues, of the linguistic input. Previous research indicates enhanced pitch processing in some autistic children, often associated with language delays and difficulties in forming stable phonological categories due to sensitivity to subtle linguistic variations. We propose that repetitive screen-based input simplifies linguistic complexity, allowing focus on individual cues. This study hypothesizes that autistic UB children exhibit superior pitch discrimination compared with both autistic and non-autistic peers. From a sample of 46 autistic French-speaking children aged 9 to 16, 12 were considered as UB. These children, along with 45 non-autistic children, participated in a two-alternative forced-choice pitch discrimination task. They listened to pairs of pure tones, 50% of which differed by 3% (easy), 2% (medium), or 1% (hard). A stringent comparison of performance revealed that only the autistic UB group performed above chance for tone pairs that differed, across all conditions. This group demonstrated superior pitch discrimination relative to autistic and non-autistic peers. This study establishes the phenomenon of UB in autism and provides evidence for enhanced pitch discrimination in this group. Acute perception of auditory information, combined with repeated language content, may facilitate UB children's focus on phonetic features, and help acquire a language with no communicative support or motivation. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3221 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=535

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