Considering the high incidence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (latest CDC estimate: 1 in 50), its impact on family stress and medical costs, and the devastating effects of its associated communication deficits on long-term outcomes, research aimed at improving language and cognitive skills in this population in early childhood is critical. We seek to understand conditions underlying successful language development in young children with ASD in order to develop interventions that are most likely to promote their language and cognitive skills, and to improve their educational, vocational, and personal outcomes. Specifically, we focus on improving receptive vocabulary, or understanding of word meanings, in children with ASD. Receptive vocabulary knowledge is a prerequisite to further language development. It is therefore critical for interventions in the infant, toddler, and preschool years to increase receptive vocabulary in children with disabilities. The goal of this proposal is to discover conditions under which children with ASD acquire receptive vocabulary meanings, retain them over time, and generalize them to new exemplars differing slightly from those with which the word was initially presented. As yet little is known about the cognitive processes underlying word learning in ASD. It is therefore likely that we have not discovered the optimal conditions for promoting learning in interventions. We concentrate on two processes that impact learning in typical development, but have not been well studied in ASD: 1) use of linguistic context to acquire word meanings, and 2) consolidation of memories during sleep. First, we ask if-given the social impairments associated with ASD-children with ASD acquire word meanings more successfully in non-social and non-interactive contexts, but rich linguistic contexts. We compare performance in a non-social context to a social context modeled on standard therapies. Second, we ask if understanding memory consolidation in ASD can improve our ability to promote retention and generalization of word meanings. This work will provide a basis for new interventions to increase receptive vocabulary. In future work, we will use the findings to develop and test such an intervention. This proposal is intended to provide the PI with a structured career development plan that will allow her to carry out this research, building on her extensive background in language development in typically developing populations, and adding expertise in two new areas: 1) language development in young children with ASD, and 2) sleep-dependent memory consolidation as it relates to language learning. The training provided by this award will transition the PI from basic research in language development to an independent career in translational research, studying language learning in populations with communication disorders.

Public Health Relevance

Considering the high incidence of ASD (latest CDC estimate: 1 in 50), its impact on family stress and medical costs, and the devastating effects of its associated communication deficits on long-term outcomes, research aimed at improving language and cognitive skills in young children with ASD is critical. We seek to understand conditions underlying successful language development in ASD in order to develop interventions that are most likely to promote language and cognitive skills and to improve these children's educational, vocational, and personal success.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research & Training (K01)
Project #
5K01DC013306-04
Application #
9300904
Study Section
Communication Disorders Review Committee (CDRC)
Program Officer
Rivera-Rentas, Alberto L
Project Start
2014-06-01
Project End
2018-05-31
Budget Start
2017-06-01
Budget End
2018-05-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
$172,195
Indirect Cost
$12,755
Name
Boston University
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Allied Health Profes
DUNS #
049435266
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02215
Horvath, Sabrina; McDermott, Elizabeth; Reilly, Kathleen et al. (2018) Acquisition of Verb Meaning From Syntactic Distribution in Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 49:668-680
He, Angela Xiaoxue; Arunachalam, Sudha (2017) Word learning mechanisms. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci 8:
Arunachalam, Sudha (2017) Preschoolers' Acquisition of Novel Verbs in the Double Object Dative. Cogn Sci 41 Suppl 4:831-854
Arunachalam, Sudha (2016) A new experimental paradigm to study children's processing of their parent's unscripted language input. J Mem Lang 88:104-116
Arunachalam, Sudha; Luyster, Rhiannon J (2016) The integrity of lexical acquisition mechanisms in autism spectrum disorders: A research review. Autism Res 9:810-28
Corriveau, Kathleen H; Kurkul, Katelyn; Arunachalam, Sudha (2016) Preschoolers' Preference for Syntactic Complexity Varies by Socioeconomic Status. Child Dev 87:1529-37
Arunachalam, Sudha; Syrett, Kristen; Chen, YongXiang (2016) Lexical Disambiguation in Verb Learning: Evidence from the Conjoined-Subject Intransitive Frame in English and Mandarin Chinese. Front Psychol 7:138
Chita-Tegmark, Meia; Arunachalam, Sudha; Nelson, Charles A et al. (2015) Eye-tracking measurements of language processing: developmental differences in children at high risk for ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 45:3327-38