Efficacy of Explicit Instruction to Teach Novel Morphological Forms to Children with Autism

Abstract

Purpose: Many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present with morphosyntactic impairment. This study compared outcomes of implicit and explicit language interventions for children with ASD.Method: Nineteen children with ASD and twelve typically-developing children completed one implicit-only and one explicit-added task targeting acquisition of novel verb inflections. Participants completed assessments measuring language, nonverbal IQ, and executive functioning. Results: Statistical analyses showed no significant differences in mastery of novel verb inflections between implicit-only and explicit-added instructional conditions for either group. TD participants showed higher rates of mastery than ASD participants. There were no significant interactions between language ability, nonverbal IQ, or executive function. Conclusion: ASD participants had more difficulty acquiring novel grammatical forms than TD peers, given either implicit-only or explicit-added instruction. ASD participants performed more accurately when given explicit rather than implicit-only instruction, but instructional condition was not correlated with mastery of the target form.