Word Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Word Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Sansiviera Mediana Sari

Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia

sansiviera92@gmail.com

Harwintha Yuhria Anjarningsih

Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia

harwintha@ui.ac.id

Myrna Laksman-Huntley

Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia

laksman@ui.ac.id

Abstract

This research stems from the semantic deficit hypothesis in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; Rapin & Allen, 1983; Boucher, Bigham, Mayes & Muskett, 2008; McGregor, Berns, Owen, Michels, Bahnsen & Lloyd, 2012). In the field, based on observations at the Cahaya Didaktika inclusive school, Indonesian children with ASD seem to possess word concepts. Therefore, this research seeks to describe their ability in comprehending word meanings through a noun definition task. The research subjects are two mild ASD children aged 16 and 11 years old who are undergoing schooling programs at Cahaya Didaktika. Data is obtained by asking them to define 17 nouns with Age of Acqusition of five years using open-ended questions. The definitions they give are then classified based on Hadley, Dickinson, Hirsh-Pasek, and Golinkoff (2017) and De Deyne and Storms (2008). The results show that only some definitions are meaningfully accurate, supporting earlier findings about ASD children’s semantic deficits in word meaning comprehension. However, the subjects describe word meanings accurately using sensory-motoric abilities, functional descriptions, and gesture. In conclusion, our two research participants who are a lot older than five years old demonstrate semantic deficit, but there is indication that methods of defining word meanings that are more physical more successfully show the knowledge of the participants. Our results contribute to the teaching of nominal meanings to moderate-mild ASD children in Indonesian schools that can further be adapted to the teaching of other parts of speech.

Keywords: children with autism; ASD children; semantic deficit; word comprehension