Brief Report: Linguistic Mazes and Perseverations in School-Age Boys with Fragile X Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder and Relationships with Maternal Maze Use.
Nell Maltman, Laura Friedman, Emily Lorang and 1 others
PMID 33768421WHAT IT FOUND
Boys with Fragile X plus autism and boys with idiopathic autism produced similar rates of speech mazes, but those with Fragile X showed more topic and utterance perseverations.
Maternal speech patterns correlated differently with each group's language features.
Key findings
01Boys with idiopathic ASD produced more revisions than boys with FXS+ASD, but no other significant differences were found in maze rates.
02Boys with FXS+ASD produced significantly more utterance and topic perseverations than boys with idiopathic ASD.
03In the FXS+ASD group, lower rates of maternal revisions were associated with more revisions, repetitions, and mazes in children.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included boys, so findings may not apply to girls with these conditions. Participants had at least phrase-level speech, excluding those with minimal verbal abilities. The sample lacked diversity, with most participants identifying as White and mothers being college-educated. Maternal language was assessed via monologue, which may not reflect conversational speech patterns.
Declared interests
The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that speech disfluencies (mazes) are the primary differentiator between idiopathic autism and Fragile X-associated autism, as rates were largely similar. The distinct feature is perseveration, which was higher in the Fragile X group.