Tone processing and the acquisition of tone in Mandarin- and English-speaking typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterised by pervasive social difficulties, which partly manifest themselves in inappropriate pragmatics. It has also been hypothesised that individuals with ASD, or at least those on the lower-functioning end of the autism spectrum, may also have atypical pitch and musical perception. This thesis investigates pitch perception in autism in a domain where pitch is directly represented in the grammar: tones. Tone perception was investigated in a series of four experiments with high-functioning English and Mandarin ASD participants with and without language problems and their corresponding TD groups. The first experiment involved a tone comprehension task (only for the Mandarin participants) using picture-matching. The second experiment involved a psychoacoustic tone discrimination task using the Mandarin Tone 1-4 continuum. The third experiment was a categorical perception task involving two tasks: a naming task and a two-step identification task. The results of the experiments indicated subtle but persistent issues with the grammatical representation of tones for Mandarin ASD speakers, especially for those with language problems. Although ASD participants' tone comprehension
Lu, Y.-F.
Tone processing and the acquisition of tone in Mandarin- and English-speaking typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterised by pervasive social difficulties, which partly manifest themselves in inappropriate pragmatics. It has also been hypothesised that individuals with ASD, or at least those on the lower-functioning end of the autism spectrum, may also have atypical pitch and musical perception. This thesis investigates pitch perception in autism in a domain where pitch is directly represented in the grammar: tones. Tone perception was investigated in a series of four experiments with high-functioning English and Mandarin ASD participants with and without language problems and their corresponding TD groups. The first experiment involved a tone comprehension task (only for the Mandarin participants) using picture-matching. The second experiment involved a psychoacoustic tone discrimination task using the Mandarin Tone 1-4 continuum. The third experiment was a categorical perception task involving two tasks: a naming task and a two-step identification task. The results of the experiments indicated subtle but persistent issues with the grammatical representation of tones for Mandarin ASD speakers, especially for those with language problems. Although ASD participants' tone comprehension
tone process acquisition tone mandarin english_speaking typically develop child_child spectrum disorder spectrum disorder characterise pervasive social difficulty partly manifest inappropriate pragmatic also hypothesise individual least lower functioning end spectrum may_also atypical pitch musical perception investigates pitch perception domain pitch directly represent grammar tone tone perception investigate series_four high functioning english_mandarin participant without language problem correspond group first involve tone comprehension task mandarin participant use picture matching second involve tone discrimination task use mandarin tone continuum third categorical perception task involve task name task step identification task indicated subtle persistent issue grammatical representation tone mandarin speaker especially language problem although participant tone comprehension