Comparision of children with autism syndrome and typically developing peers matched according to MLU level in terms of word variety

In this study, the use of noun, verb, pronoun and adjective was compared between children with autism syndrome and typically developing peers who were matched according to MLU level. For each group, the differences between word categories were examined.15 children diagnosed with autism and 15 typically developing children participated in this study. The average age of children diagnosed with autism was 80.40 months and standard deviation was 18.69. The average age of typically developing children was 35 months and standard deviation was 6.26. The mean MLU level of the children with autism syndrome was 3.60 and standard deviation was 0.94. The mean MLU level of typically developing children was 3.64 and standard deviation was 0.78.Natural language samples were collected during free game sessions in 30-45 minutes. Sessions were recorded by camera and transcribed. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the group diagnosed with autism syndrome and the group of typically developing children in terms of quantity of noun, verb and pronoun use and type token ratio. For the use of pronoun, there was a statiscally significant difference between the groups, however the effect size of this difference was low.The differences between the use of word categories were investigated for both typically developing children and children with autism syndrome. For both groups there was no statistically significant difference between the use of noun and verbs, but there was a statistically significant difference between use of the other word categories.