Latifatu Mohammed, M.S.
Doctoral Student
Research in Developmental Disabilities and Language Lab (RIDDLL)
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Question-response Competence and Expressive Language Among Autistic Boys and Boys with FXS+ Autism
During naturally occurring social interactions, such as conversations, question-response competence, a component of pragmatics, is employed to facilitate interactions, maintain topics, and foster social connectedness. In early childhood, parents use questions to promote children’s language learning. Children become responsive to questions at a very young age, and this ability tends to increase with age. Autistic children and children with fragile X syndrome often have pragmatic language difficulties, including question-response difficulties. In the current study, we aimed to (1) evaluate the response ability of autistic boys and boys with FXS and co-occurring autism to questions during conversations with an examiner, and (2) examine the relationship between the adequacy of their response and their expressive language abilities. Results showed that boys in both groups had high rates of responding to questions. However, autistic boys performed significantly better compared to boys with FXS+ autism in how they responded to the questions and also engaged in questions that both initiated and continued topics. In children with FXS and co-occurring autism, we found relationships between their expressive language and how they responded to questions. These findings add to our knowledge of question-response competence and expressive language among autistic boys and boys with FXS+ autism.