Echolalic Responses by a Child With Autism to Four Experimental Conditions of Sociolinguistic Input

Studies of the immediate verbal imitations (IVIs) of subjects with echolalia report that features of linguistic or social input alone affect the number of IVIs elicited. This experimental study of a child with echolalia and autism controlled each of these variables while introducing a systematic change in the other. The subject produced more (p<.05) IVIs in response to unknown lexical words presented with a high degree of directiveness (Condition D) than in response to three other conditions of stimulus presentation (e.g., unknown lexical words, minimally directive style.) Thus, an interaction between the effects of linguistic and social input was demonstrated. IVIs were produced across all conditions, primarily during first presentations of lexical stimuli. Only the IVIs elicited by first presentations of the lexical stimuli during Condition D differed significantly (p<.05) from the number of IVIs elicited by first presentations of lexical stimuli in other conditions. These findings viewed together suggest that the occurrence of IVIs was related, at least for this child, to an uncertain or informative event and that this response was significantly greater when the lexical stimuli were unknown and presented in a highly directive style.

KEY WORDS: echolalia, autism, lexical, familiarity, directiveness

Submitted on January 29, 1991
Accepted on July 1, 1991

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