Brief report: impaired differentiation of vegetative/affective and intentional nonverbal vocalizations in a subject with Asperger syndrome (AS).

Susanne et al. (2012) watched one adult with Asperger syndrome listen to short sounds. The sounds were yawns, coughs, sighs, or laughs.

After each sound the adult told the team if it was "just a body noise" or "done on purpose." Twelve typical adults did the same task for comparison.

The AS adult called almost every body noise intentional. Controls rarely did this.

In plain words, he treated a yawn like a chosen message, not a tired reflex.

Lortie et al. (2017) extends this idea. They measured brain waves while kids with ASD heard coughs and laughs. The kids detected the sounds fine, but their brains did not automatically turn attention toward them. Together the papers suggest both mis-labeling and mis-orienting to non-speech sounds.

Fernandes et al. (2022) also extends the finding. Twenty-five autistic adults watched short videos and judged intentions. Early brain attention spikes (P200) were smaller and answers were less accurate. The single-case over-attribution now looks like part of a wider pattern.

O'Connor et al. (2008) synthesis_includes this result. The review argues ASD social quirks come from a detail-focused style, not a broken social module. Over-calling a sigh intentional fits that view: the person spots the tiny sound cue but frames it wrong.

If clients treat yawns or coughs as purposeful, they may miss the real social message. You can probe this quickly: present a recorded yawn and ask, "Did the person mean to do that?" If they say yes, teach the difference between body noises and true signals. Add explicit orienting cues like "Listen, this is important" before key social sounds, a tip straight from Lortie et al. (2017).