Abstract
In this study, we videotaped two 10-min. free-play interactions and coded speech acts (SAs) in peer talk of 51 preschoolers (21 ASD, 30 typical), interacting with friend versus non-friend partners. Groups were matched for maternal education, IQ (verbal/nonverbal), and CA. We compared SAs by group (ASD/typical), by partner’s friendship status (friend/non-friend), and by partner’s disability status. Main results yielded a higher amount and diversity of SAs in the typical than the ASD group (mainly in assertive acts, organizational devices, object-dubbing, and pretend-play); yet, those categories, among others, showed better performance with friends versus non-friends. Overall, a more nuanced perception of the pragmatic deficit in ASD should be adopted, highlighting friendship as an important context for children’s development of SAs.
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Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by the Israel Science Foundation given to the first author. Special thanks are extended to the children who took part in this study. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dee B. Ankonina for her editorial contribution and to Dov Har–Even for his statistical assistance.
Funding
This research was partially supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF/ No.502/06) to the first author, Nirit Bauminger-Zviley.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Appendix
Appendix
Dore’s (1979) Taxonomy Subcategories: Description and Examples of Assertives, Requestives, and Responsives
Assertives
Declarations These utterances create social facts, such as:procedurals for invoking norms or rules, setting procedures, or defining conditions (“This is not the right way to build a pyramid,” “This is the sea and here are the bears”); claims for the speaker’s rights (“I’m first,” “My turn now”); the use of jokes (“We throw soup on the roof”), teasing (“You can’t catch me”), and warnings (“Pay attention,” “Be careful”).
Evaluations These utterances judge situations/conditions, such as:evaluatives that express personal judgment or attitudes (“These are ugly things,” “This is fun”); attributions that express beliefs about another’s state (“He wants to go,” “He loves her”); and explanations that express casual relations, give reasons, or make predictions (“He’s crying because he got hit,” “I did it because it was fun”).
Reports These utterances represent existing states, such as:identifications that label objects and/or events (e.g., “This is a car”); descriptions (“It fell,” “It’s the same”); sharings that describe events referring personally to the speaker, beyond the “here and now” (“My friend Orr had grape juice in his old house”); and internal reports of mental states and emotions (“I like it,” “That hurts”).
Requestives
Questions These utterances include:choice questions (Yes or no?); product WH questions (Who? Which? Where? When? What?); and process questions that seek explanation or extend description (Why? How? What for? What about? How come?).
Requests These utterances include actions (“Sit,” “Give me”); permissions (“Can I take this?”); and action suggestions (“Let’s do this”).
Responsives
Answers These utterances provide answers to choice (“Yes;” “No”), product (“He’s here”), and process (“I wanted to”) questions, as well as compliances (“Okay”) and clarifications that are not necessarily in reply to questions (“I said no,” “Really,” “Just kidding”).
Unsolicited replies These replies to non-soliciting utterances include:descriptions of qualifications (“But I can’t do it”); agreements (“Exactly”) or rejections (“Not true”); and acknowledgments (“Aha”).
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Bauminger-Zviely, N., Golan-Itshaky, A. & Tubul-Lavy, G. Speech Acts During Friends’ and Non-friends’ Spontaneous Conversations in Preschool Dyads with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder versus Typical Development. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 1380–1390 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3064-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3064-x