Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, Speech Pathology and Audiology

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder impacting social communication. In people with ASD, social uses of language, including non-literal uses are often universally impaired. Prepositions are used in concrete ways as spatial concepts (e.g., in the house) and in abstract ways as temporal concepts (e.g., in the morning) or metaphorical concepts (e.g., in love). This study examined the production of prepositions by children with ASD. We predicted participants with ASD would exhibit difficulties with abstract uses of prepositions. Narratives of participants with ASD (N=19) and typical development (TD) (N=20), matched for language, age, and intelligence, were analyzed for the production of prepositions. We found TD participants produced significantly more prepositions and spatial prepositions than participants with ASD. However, contrary to our hypothesis, children with ASD did not produce fewer abstract terms than TD children. Number of prepositions was significantly related to the age of participants; older participants produced more prepositions than younger participants, suggesting a developmental trajectory. Severity of ASD symptoms was negatively related to the number of prepositions produced, although both ASD and TD participants used prepositions flexibly. These findings suggest prepositions may be an area of weakness for fluent children with ASD.

Committee: Aaron Shield (Advisor); Amber Franklin (Committee Member); Arnold Olszewski (Committee Member); Emily Zane (Committee Member) Subjects: Speech Therapy