Efficiency of lexical access in children with autism spectrum disorders: does modality matter?
Brief written primes do not help kids with autism recognize spoken words faster, so visual supports need direct teaching, not just presence.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Harper-Hill et al. (2014) asked if kids with autism can use a written word to help them hear the next word faster.
They showed children a word on a screen, then played a spoken word. Sometimes the two words matched in meaning.
The team compared kids with autism to typically developing peers. They timed how fast each child recognized the spoken word.
What they found
Written primes did not speed up spoken-word recognition for either group.
Cross-modal priming showed no clear benefit. The study could not show that visual supports help real-time language processing.
How this fits with other research
Hala et al. (2007) found positive priming when they used meaning cues, not visual ones. Their success shows priming can work in autism if the cue is semantic, not visual.
Vassos et al. (2023) later tested story listening, reading, and watching. Like Keely, they saw no modality edge for autism. Together the two studies suggest visual input rarely gives a free boost.
Tonnsen et al. (2016) looks like a contradiction: visual imagery training did lift reading comprehension. The key difference is training. Keely tested brief, automatic priming; L et al. taught children to use pictures on purpose.
Why it matters
Do not assume visual word cues will speed up spoken language for your learners with autism. If you want to use pictures or text, teach the child how to use them first. Check each learner separately—some may benefit only after explicit instruction.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The provision of visual support to individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely recommended. We explored one mechanism underlying the use of visual supports: efficiency of language processing. Two groups of children, one with and one without an ASD, participated. The groups had comparable oral and written language skills and nonverbal cognitive abilities. In two semantic priming experiments, prime modality and prime-target relatedness were manipulated. Response time and accuracy of lexical decisions on the spoken word targets were measured. In the first uni-modal experiment, both groups demonstrated significant priming effects. In the second experiment which was cross-modal, no effect for relatedness or group was found. This result is considered in the light of the attentional capacity required for access to the lexicon via written stimuli within the developing semantic system. These preliminary findings are also considered with respect to the use of visual support for children with ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2014 · doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2055-4