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Eye-Tracking Measurements of Language Processing: Developmental Differences in Children at High Risk for ASD

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Abstract

To explore how being at high risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), based on having an older sibling diagnosed with ASD, affects word comprehension and language processing speed, 18-, 24- and 36-month-old children, at high and low risk for ASD were tested in a cross- sectional study, on an eye gaze measure of receptive language that measured how accurately and rapidly the children looked at named target images. There were no significant differences between the high risk ASD group and the low risk control group of 18- and 24-month-olds. However, 36-month-olds in the high risk for ASD group performed significantly worse on the accuracy measure, but not on the speed measure. We propose that the language processing efficiency of the high risk group is not compromised, but other vocabulary acquisition factors might have lead to the high risk 36-month-olds to comprehend significantly fewer nouns on our measure.

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Notes

  1. One child contributed data at all three ages and 11 children contributed data at two ages. The total number of children reflects this overlap between the age sub-groups.

  2. Five children contributed data at all three ages and 26 children contributed data at two ages. The total number of children reflects this overlap between the age sub-groups.

  3. The accuracy measure used in this paper is computed using the formula (proportion of time looking at target)/(proportion of time looking at target + proportion of time looking at distractor). This formula by definition does not take into account time spent looking away or lost data for which the eye-tracker outputs an error code.

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Acknowledgments

We extend special thanks to Max Tegmark for contributions to the data processing and analysis for this study. We are also grateful to Nicole Coman, Anne Seery, Meagan Talbott, Vanessa Vogel and the Nelson lab staff at Children’s Hospital Boston for their help and support and, of course, to all the parents and infants in the Infant Sibling Project who contributed to this research.

Funding

NIH K01DC013306, RO1 DC 10290, Autism Speaks, Simons Foundation.

Conflict of interest

None of the authors have any conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Meia Chita-Tegmark & Helen Tager-Flusberg

  2. Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Sudha Arunachalam

  3. Division of Medical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Charles A. Nelson

  4. Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Charles A. Nelson

  5. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Charles A. Nelson

Authors
  1. Meia Chita-Tegmark
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  2. Sudha Arunachalam
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  3. Charles A. Nelson
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  4. Helen Tager-Flusberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Meia Chita-Tegmark.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 3.

Table 3 Noun pairs associated with image pairs
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Chita-Tegmark, M., Arunachalam, S., Nelson, C.A. et al. Eye-Tracking Measurements of Language Processing: Developmental Differences in Children at High Risk for ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 3327–3338 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2495-5

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