Uneven Expressive Language Development in Mandarin-Exposed Preschool Children with ASD: Comparing Vocabulary, Grammar, and the Decontextualized Use of Language via the PCDI-Toddler Form.
Mandarin-exposed autistic preschoolers show the same uneven profile seen in the West—solid vocabulary and grammar, weak pragmatic use.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Su et al. (2018) looked at 160 Mandarin-speaking autistic toddlers and preschoolers.
They split the children into high, middle, and low verbal groups.
The team used the Mandarin version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI to check vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatic language.
What they found
Every group was stronger in words and grammar than in using language for real conversation.
Even the most verbal kids struggled with decontextualized language like telling a story or joking.
The pattern matches what we see in English-speaking autistic children.
How this fits with other research
Su et al. (2019) later showed the same children could understand basic Mandarin word order online.
This means receptive grammar is intact even when expressive pragmatics lag.
Meng et al. (2026) followed kids longitudinally and found grammar markers appear in the typical order, just slower.
Together the three papers say: teach the next grammar target on time, but add extra pragmatic practice.
Why it matters
You can stop waiting for perfect grammar before you work on pragmatics.
Start small conversational routines now—greetings, showing, short stories—while you shape grammar.
Use the child’s strong vocabulary as the bridge into social use.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Data from children with ASD who are learning Indo-European languages indicate that (a) they vary hugely in their expressive language skills and (b) their pragmatic/socially-based language is more impaired than their structural language. We investigate whether similar patterns of language development exist for Mandarin-exposed children with ASD. Parent report data of the Putonghua Communicative Development Inventory-Toddler Form were collected from 160 17-83-month-old children with ASD. These children with ASD demonstrated similar levels of variability as Western children with ASD. In particular, they could be divided into three distinct subgroups (high verbal, middle verbal, low verbal), all of which manifested relative strengths in lexical and grammatical language compared to pragmatic usage of decontextualized language.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s10803-018-3614-x