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Reducing Information’s Speed Improves Verbal Cognition and Behavior in Autism: A 2-Cases Report

Authors :
Bruno Gepner
Thomas Arciszewski
Laura Latzko
Carole Tardif
Centre de Recherche en Psychologie de la Connaissance, du Langage et de l'Émotion (PsyCLÉ)
Aix Marseille Université (AMU)
Neurobiologie des interactions cellulaires et neurophysiopathologie - NICN (NICN)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille 2
Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille 2-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Source :
Pediatrics, Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics, 2017, 139 (6), ⟨10.1542/peds.2015-4207⟩, Pediatrics, 2017, 139 (6), ⟨10.1542/peds.2015-4207⟩
Publication Year :
2017
Publisher :
HAL CCSD, 2017.

Abstract

According to the temporal theory of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), audiovisual changes in environment, particularly those linked to facial and verbal language, are often too fast to be faced, perceived, and/or interpreted online by many children with ASD, which could help explain their facial, verbal, and/or socioemotional interaction impairments. Our goal here was to test for the first time the impact of slowed-down audiovisual information on verbal cognition and behavior in 2 boys with ASD and verbal delay. Using 15 experimental sessions during 4 months, both boys were presented with various stimuli (eg, pictures, words, sentences, cartoons) and were then asked questions or given instructions regarding stimuli. The audiovisual stimuli and instructions/questions were presented on a computer's screen and were always displayed twice: at real-time speed (RTS) and at slowed-down speed (SDS) using the software Logiral. We scored the boys’ verbal cognition performance (ie, ability to understand questions/instructions and answer them verbally/nonverbally) and their behavioral reactions (ie, attention, verbal/nonverbal communication, social reciprocity), and analyzed the effects of speed and order of the stimuli presentation on these factors. According to the results, both participants exhibited significant improvements in verbal cognition performance with SDS presentation compared with RTS presentation, and they scored better with RTS presentation when having SDS presentation before rather than after RTS presentation. Behavioral reactions were also improved in SDS conditions compared with RTS conditions. This initial evidence of a positive impact of slowed-down audiovisual information on verbal cognition should be tested in a large cohort of children with ASD and associated speech/language impairments.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00314005 and 10984275
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Pediatrics, Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics, 2017, 139 (6), ⟨10.1542/peds.2015-4207⟩, Pediatrics, 2017, 139 (6), ⟨10.1542/peds.2015-4207⟩
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....370a193fc575a02eec3f4ce65f30e4fb
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-4207⟩