Developmental process of the understanding of linguistic register in children: A comparison of typically developing children, autistic children, and children with Williams syndrome.
Autistic kids can learn which words to use with whom, but extra teaching is needed for them to realize how their tone affects others' feelings.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ikeda et al. (2024) tested how well kids pick the right words for different listeners. They compared three groups: typically developing children, autistic children, and children with Williams syndrome.
Each child played a game where they chose polite or casual phrases for adults or peers. Later they answered, 'Will the listener feel good, bad, or neutral after hearing this?'
What they found
All three groups learned which register matched which listener. They could pick 'Good morning, ma'am' for a teacher and 'Hey dude' for a friend.
Only the typically developing children said the polite phrase would make the adult happy and the casual phrase might upset her. Autistic and Williams kids missed that emotional link.
How this fits with other research
Volden et al. (2007) saw a similar gap. Their high-functioning autistic youth could simplify words for a toddler but still sounded too blunt with adults. Ayaka's task shows the next layer: knowing the tone can hurt feelings.
Nah et al. (2011) found autistic kids rated rude acts as 'wrong' yet gave odd reasons. Ayaka's data echo this: surface rule learned, emotional consequence missed.
Järvinen et al. (2015) showed autistic children stay physiologically aroused to all faces. That constant alertness may crowd out the subtle cue 'wrong register upsets adults'.
Why it matters
When you teach greetings or requests, add a quick feelings check: 'How will Mom feel if we shout 'gimme'?' Use photos of faces or emojis to make the emotional outcome visible. Without this step, autistic learners may master the form but still sound disrespectful and wonder why adults react coldly.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Although the developmental process of linguistic register-the appropriate manner of speech as determined by the listener and social situation-has been gradually clarified in typically developing (TD) children, research on the mechanism and developmental process of register acquisition in atypically developing children are insufficient. This study compared the developmental process of understanding linguistic register among TD children, autistic children, and those with Williams syndrome (WS), and examined the contributions of social cognition and motivation to the acquisition of linguistic register. Two experiments were designed to assess the recognition of which linguistic register to use when communicating with different listeners and of the listener's feelings according to the speakers' use of register. The results revealed that the process of understanding register-listener associations was nearly identical among all groups of children and their understanding improved with age. Conversely, their understanding of the effect of register selection on the listener's feelings varied. Importantly, as TD children mature, they become aware that adult listeners may feel negatively when spoken to in an inappropriate register, whereas autistic children and those with WS do not exhibit the same awareness. Thus, our results suggest that atypical social cognition and motivation do not disturb the understanding of register-listener associations. However, social cognition and motivation play important roles in understanding the effect of register selection on the listener's feelings. These findings provide a significant contribution to clarifying the mechanism of linguistic register acquisition.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3219