Competing Perceptual Salience in a Visual Word Recognition Task Differentially Affects Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Courtney E Venker, Janine Mathée, Dominik Neumann and 3 others
PMID 33372400WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism still recognized named words, but looked less at the named target when a more colorful and patterned distractor competed.
Children without autism did not show this drop. Design therapy materials so distractors do not draw attention away from the target.
Key findings
01Children with autism looked less at the named target when a more colorful patterned distractor competed, compared with neutral trials.
02Both groups increased looking to the named target after it was spoken, giving evidence of word recognition in neutral and competing trials.
03Children with typical development did not show a lower share of looking to the named target in competing trials than in neutral trials.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The analysed sample was small: 17 children in each group. Children with autism who could not be matched because of low receptive language were excluded, and their mean receptive language age equivalent was 12 months, so findings may not apply to children with weaker language. The salience manipulation combined color and geometric patterning, so the study cannot say which visual feature mattered. The stimuli were static images, so moving or dynamic distractors might have a stronger effect. The study did not separate whether children with autism were drawn to the high-salience distractor or away from the low-salience target. Group matching was useful for language, but it may not capture individual differences across the full range of language ability.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflicts of interest or funding declaration. The publication types note research support from the N.I.H., extramural.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that children with autism cannot recognize words when a bright object is nearby. They showed evidence of recognition after the word was spoken. The study did not show a clear overall group difference. The finding was a lower share of looking to the named target in the autism group during competing trials.