Anaphor Processing During Reading Comprehension in Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

With the purpose of promoting academic inclusion, it is essential for educators to understand the nature underlying poor reading comprehension in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this study, we examined the time course of anaphor resolution during text comprehension in children and adolescents with ASD and a group of children with Typical Development (TD) matched in chronological age (age range: 9–16) and non-verbal IQ. Their eye movements were monitored as they read short paragraphs in which two factors were manipulated: (1) the semantic typicality of an antecedent (e.g. shark vs. salmon) with regards to a category noun that serves as anaphor (e.g. fish) and (2) the distance between the antecedent and anaphor (e.g. near vs. far). Both, children with ASD and TD showed more and longer first fixations in the near anaphors than in the far anaphors but not in the post-anaphor region which suggests that the effect of distance on anaphor resolution was immediate. The reverse effect of distance indicated that the far condition was too demanding for students of these ages to occur online. Typical antecedents received fewer and shorter revisits than atypical antecedents but only for participants with TD. In contrast, ASD participants did not show such typicality facilitation. Finally, children with ASD made more but shorter fixations and revisits in general than their typical peers. Theoretical and applied implications of our results for the literacy training on ASD participants are discussed.