Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Program

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Supervisor

Dr. Janis Oram Cardy

Abstract

Some children with autism (CWA) have difficulties using and

understanding language that are similar to children who have language impairment (LI) without autism. CWA were tested for two processes thought to underlie LI: (a) impaired auditory and visual rapid temporal processing (RTP), and (b) impaired phonological short-term memory. Five 7-12 year old CWA and seven children with typical development were presented (a) tones and objects at different rates during magnetoencephalography recording to measure neural RTP responses and (b) a nonword repetition (NWR) task to measure phonological processing. The CWA did not significantly differ from ∞ntrols in auditory or visual RTP. However, evidence for atypical processing in the auditory cortex in CWA was found. The groups did not significantly differ in NWR, but there were individuals with autism impaired on this task. Thus, some CWA may have processing dysfunctions similar to those thought to contribute to LI outside of autism.

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