Word learning and orthography (Clark & Reuterskiöld, 2023)

<b>Purpose: </b>Previous research has demonstrated that typically developing children, verbal children with a diagnosis of autism, children with Down syndrome, children with developmental language disorder, and children with dyslexia can all benefit from orthographic support during word learning tasks. This study sought to determine if minimally speaking or nonspeaking children with a diagnosis of autism would also demonstrate an orthographic facilitation effect during a computer-based remote word learning task.<b>Method: </b>Twenty-two school-age children with a diagnosis of autism and little to no spoken language learned four novel words by contrasting the words with known objects. Two novel words were taught with orthographic support present, and two were taught without orthographic support. Participants were exposed to the words a total of 12 times and then given an immediate posttest to assess identification. Parent report measures of receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, autism symptomatology, and reading skills were also collected.<b>Results: </b>During learning tasks, participants performed equally well whether orthographic support was given or not. For the posttest, however, participants performed significantly better for words that were taught with orthographic support. The presence of orthography improved accuracy and supported a greater number of participants to reach the passing criterion compared to the absence of orthography. Orthographic representations aided the word learning of those with lower expressive language significantly more than those with higher expressive language.<b>Conclusions: </b>Minimally speaking or nonspeaking children with a diagnosis of autism benefit from orthographic support when learning new words. Further investigation is warranted to determine if this effect holds during face-to-face interactions using augmentative and alternative communication systems.<b>Supplemental Material S1. </b>Reading skills of individual participants.Clark, G. T., &amp; Reuterskiöld, C. (2023). Word learning with orthographic support in nonspeaking and minimally speaking school-age autistic children. <i>Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research</i>, <i>66</i>(6), 2047–2063. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00549

**研究目的：** 既往研究表明，典型发育儿童、确诊自闭症（autism）的有语言能力儿童、唐氏综合征（Down syndrome）患儿、发展性语言障碍（developmental language disorder）患儿以及阅读障碍（dyslexia）患儿，在单词学习任务中均可从正字法支持（orthographic support）中获益。本研究旨在探究确诊自闭症的最小语言表达或无语言儿童，在基于电脑的远程单词学习任务中是否同样会表现出正字法促进效应。
**研究方法：** 22名确诊自闭症且几乎无或无口语表达的学龄儿童，通过将新单词与已知物体对比的方式学习4个新单词。其中2个新单词在教学过程中配有正字法支持，剩余2个则未提供正字法支持。参与者共接触目标单词12次，随后立即接受后测以评估单词识别能力。本研究同时收集了家长报告的接受性词汇、表达性词汇、自闭症症状表现以及阅读技能相关测评数据。
**研究结果：** 在单词学习任务阶段，无论是否提供正字法支持，参与者的表现均无显著差异。但在后测环节中，学习时配有正字法支持的单词，参与者的识别表现显著更优。相较于未提供正字法支持的情况，正字法的存在提升了学习准确率，且帮助更多参与者达到合格判定标准。此外，正字法表征对表达性语言能力较低的参与者的单词学习帮助效果，显著优于对表达性语言能力较高参与者的帮助效果。
**研究结论：** 确诊自闭症的无语言或最小语言表达学龄儿童，在学习新单词时可从正字法支持中获益。未来仍需开展进一步研究，以明确该效应在使用辅具与替代沟通（augmentative and alternative communication）系统的面对面互动场景中是否同样成立。
**补充材料S1：** 个体参与者的阅读技能数据。
Clark, G. T., & Reuterskiöld, C. (2023). 《学龄期自闭症非言语与弱言语儿童的正字法辅助单词学习》. 《言语、语言与听力研究杂志（Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research）》, 66(6), 2047–2063. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00549