Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Brief Report: Inner Speech Impairment in Children with Autism is Associated with Greater Nonverbal than Verbal Skills

  • Brief Report
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We present a new analysis of Whitehouse, Maybery, and Durkin’s (2006, Experiment 3) data on inner speech in children with autism (CWA). Because inner speech development is thought to depend on linguistically mediated social interaction, we hypothesized that children with both autism and a nonverbal > verbal (NV > V) skills profile would show the greatest inner speech impairment. CWA and typically developing controls (n = 23 in each group) undertook a timed mathematical task-switching test, known to benefit from inner speech use. Participants completed the task with and without articulatory suppression (AS), which disrupts inner speech. The hypothesis was supported: AS interference varied with cognitive profile among CWA but not among controls. Only the NV > V autism group showed no AS interference, indicating an inner speech impairment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  • Al-Namlah, A. S., Fernyhough, C., & Meins, E. (2006). Sociocultural influences on the development of verbal mediation: Private speech and phonological recoding in Saudi Arabian and British samples. Developmental Psychology, 42(1), 117–131. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.1.117.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A., Chincotta, D., & Adlam, A. (2001). Working memory and the control of action: Evidence from task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(4), 641–657. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.4.641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baldo, J. V., Dronkers, N. F., Wilkins, D., Ludy, C., Raskin, P., & Kim, J. Y. (2005). Is problem solving dependent on language? Brain and Language, 92(3), 240–250. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2004.06.103.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch, C. K., & Joseph, R. M. (2003). Brief report: Cognitive correlates of enlarged head circumference in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(2), 209–215. doi:10.1023/A:1022903913547.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, C. D. (1990). Differential Ability Scales: Introductory and technical handbook. New York: Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernyhough, C. (1996). The dialogic mind: A dialogic approach to the higher mental functions. New Ideas in Psychology, 14(1), 47–62. doi:10.1016/0732-118X(95)00024-B.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernyhough, C. (2008). Getting Vygotskian about theory of mind: Mediation, dialogue, and the development of social understanding. Developmental Review, 28(2), 225–262. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2007.03.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grandin, T. (1995). Thinking in Pictures: And other reports from my life with autism. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlburt, R. T., Happé, F., & Frith, U. (1994). Sampling the form of inner experience in 3 adults with Asperger syndrome. Psychological Medicine, 24(2), 385–395.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, R. M., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Lord, C. (2002). Cognitive profiles and social-communicative functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 43(6), 807–821. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kana, R. K., Keller, T. A., Cherkassky, V. L., Minshew, N. J., & Just, M. A. (2006). Sentence comprehension in autism: Thinking in pictures with decreased functional connectivity. Brain, 129, 2484–2493. doi:10.1093/brain/awl164.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Rutter, M., & LeCouteur, A. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview—revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 659–685.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raven, J. C., Court, J. H., & Raven, J. (1992). Standard Progressive Matrices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tager-Flusberg, H., & Joseph, R. M. (2003). Identifying neurocognitive phenotypes in autism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 358(1430), 303–314. doi:10.1098/rstb.2002.1198.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1934/1987). Thinking and Speech. In R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 1). New York: Plenum.

  • Whitehouse, A. J. O., Maybery, M. T., & Durkin, K. (2006). Inner speech impairments in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 47(8), 857–865. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01624.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D., Happé, F., & Jarrold, C. (2008). Intact inner speech use in autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from a short-term memory task. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 49(1), 51–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winsler, A., Abar, B., Feder, M. A., Schunn, C. D., & Rubio, D. A. (2007). Private speech and executive functioning among high-functioning children with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(9), 1617–1635. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0294-8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Science Laboratories, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    Jane S. M. Lidstone, Charles Fernyhough & Elizabeth Meins

  2. Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia, West Perth, WA, Australia

    Andrew J. O. Whitehouse

Authors
  1. Jane S. M. Lidstone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Charles Fernyhough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Elizabeth Meins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrew J. O. Whitehouse
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jane S. M. Lidstone.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lidstone, J.S.M., Fernyhough, C., Meins, E. et al. Brief Report: Inner Speech Impairment in Children with Autism is Associated with Greater Nonverbal than Verbal Skills. J Autism Dev Disord 39, 1222–1225 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0731-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0731-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation