Exploring the morphological and morpho-syntactic abilities of adolescents with autism

This study examined the morphological and morpho-syntactic abilities of Hebrew-speaking adolescents with and without ASD. The participants consisted of 59 adolescents, divided into two groups: 29 with ASD (5 girls, 24 boys, ages 14-18) and 30 typically developing (TD) peers (9 girls, 21 boys, ages 14-18). Assessments included measures of non-verbal intelligence, vocabulary, and the production of morphological and morpho-syntactic structures. Group comparisons and correlations between background variables and performance on morphological and morpho- syntactic tasks were conducted. Additionally, individual analyses were performed to identify language profiles within the ASD group. The results revealed significant differences favoring TD adolescents in tasks related to past tense verb inflection, as well as mixed-tense verb inflection. Both groups found tasks involving regular components to be easier. In both groups, vocabulary was correlated with performance on various morphological and morpho-syntactic tasks. Alongside some similarities in the hierarchy of task difficulty across the two groups, notable differences in this hierarchy were also observed. Two distinct language profiles were identified among the adolescents with ASD. The study underscores the importance of tailored language assessments and targeted interventions and recommends longitudinal studies to determine whether these challenges are the result of developmental delays or persistent deficits.