UCLA

With the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses globally, the overall aim of this dissertation is to improve our understanding of the linguistic aptitude of autistic individuals. Given that the autism diagnosis is a spectrum, we rely on the Autism Quotient (AQ) test, which measures the quantity of autistic-like traits an individual possesses, to provide a quantitative value for the diagnosis. The goal of this study is to better understand how autistic-like traits may affect a child’s phonological abilities at the segment-level, measured by their ability to imitate voice onset time (VOT) when producing stop consonants of a novel second language (L2).

Our participants are both typically-developing (TD) and neurodiverse children, all 18 of whom are English-dominant children ages seven to 11 years old based in New South Wales, Australia. The methodology includes a parent survey completed on behalf of the child and experimental tasks, completed in person by the child, across two sessions that were separated by four to seven days. The experimental tasks consist of both English and Spanish read-aloud tasks, as well as Spanish immediate imitation tasks, and perception tasks featuring manipulated syllables spanning the full range of Spanish and English stop consonant VOT values. These tasks allow us to evaluate how well the participants imitate and learn to produce Spanish words with the appropriate, shortened VOT values.

Since individuals with higher AQ scores have more autistic-like traits, such as greater attention to detail and focus, we predict these individuals will be better L2 phonetic learners. The results show that autistic-like traits are not predictive of a child’s L2 phonetic imitation, nor short-term or long-term L2 phonetic learning abilities. That being said, regardless of diagnosis, our participants show a significant VOT reduction on the L2 phonetic imitation task and they learn to maintain a reduced VOT when producing Spanish word-initial stops, in both the short-term and the long-term. All of the children in the present study are capable L2 phonetic imitators and learners; thus, we encourage L2 learning in classrooms to offer an additional communicative outlet and improve children’s social skills, neurodivergent or not.