Scalar inferences in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Autistic kids read 'or' as 'only one' just like peers, so look elsewhere for pragmatic targets.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chevallier et al. (2010) asked kids with autism to pick the meaning of sentences like 'You can have cake or ice-cream.'
They counted how often each child chose the 'only one' reading (exclusive-or).
The team then compared scores to a group of typical peers.
What they found
Children with autism chose the 'only one' meaning just as often as controls.
The study found no special trouble with this kind of inference.
How this fits with other research
Pijnacker et al. (2009) saw the same null result in adults with ASD, so the spared skill seems to last across ages.
Vierck et al. (2015) conceptually replicated the finding in Mandarin-speaking kids, showing the result is not tied to English.
Petit et al. (2025) contradicts the picture: their autistic children did worse on the same scalar task. The clash may come from subtle task wording or sample ability levels, so probe your learner first before assuming the skill is intact.
Why it matters
If a child with autism stumbles on conversational meaning, target metaphor or emotion inference first; scalar 'or' is likely not the culprit. Use quick trials of 'cake or ice-cream' style sentences as an easy win or to spot the rare kid who truly needs help here.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
On being told "John or Mary will come", one might infer that not both of them will come. Yet the semantics of "or" is compatible with a situation where both John and Mary come. Inferences of this type, which enrich the semantics of "or" from an 'inclusive' to an 'exclusive' interpretation, have been extensively studied in linguistic pragmatics. However, the phenomenon has not been much explored in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), where pragmatic deficits are commonly reported. Here, we present an experiment investigating these inferences. We predicted that, as a result of the reported pragmatic deficits, participants with ASD would produce fewer inferential enrichments of "or" than matched controls. However, contrary to expectations, but in line with recent findings by Pijnacker et al. (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 607-618, 2009), performances did not differ across groups. This unexpected finding is discussed in light of the literature on pragmatic abilities in autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2010 · doi:10.1007/s10803-010-0960-8