Autistic children's language imitation shows reduced sensitivity to ostracism.
Zoë L Hopkins, Nicola Yuill, Holly P Branigan
PMID 34105047WHAT IT FOUND
Ostracism did not make autistic children copy a partner's disfavored word choices more.
They copied them overall, but ostracised and included children showed the same amount of alignment (51%). This is laboratory language imitation, not therapy evidence.
Key findings
01Autistic children aligned with the experimenter's word choices overall: they produced a disfavored name after hearing a disfavored name 60% of the time, versus 9% after hearing a favored name.
02Ostracism did not increase alignment: the ostracism and control groups showed the same 51% alignment effect.
03A Bayesian analysis gave very strong evidence that the two groups did not differ in the magnitude of their alignment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, and the authors note that a larger sample would have been desirable. The children were not re-evaluated for autism symptoms; the study assumed existing formal diagnoses were correct. Autism severity was proxied by parent-report SCQ scores rather than direct symptom assessment. The control condition was active inclusion, which could exaggerate Cyberball effects. Eight responses were excluded because children misordered cards during the game. The manipulation check asked how often children received the ball, not how they felt about exclusion.
Declared interests
The supplied text states that the funder named was the Economic and Social Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic children cannot imitate a partner's words. They imitated disfavored names more after hearing them (60% vs. 9%), but ostracism did not increase imitation compared with inclusion (51% vs. 51%).