Exploring Maze Patterns in Bilingual and Monolingual Children With and Without Autism: A Pragmatic Perspective.

Purpose: Monolingual autistic children show distinct patterns of linguistic mazes (disfluencies), such as fewer filled pauses (e.g., "uh," "um") and utterance-initial connectives (e.g., "and"), than non-autistic peers. Maze types are multifunctional, but some (e.g., filled pauses) are used primarily...

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Publicado en:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 69; no. 2; pp. 462 - 483
Autores principales: Beradze, Marianna, Fichman, Sveta, Meir, Natalia
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Feb2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Feb2026
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00255
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      tig:
        atl: Exploring Maze Patterns in Bilingual and Monolingual Children With and Without Autism: A Pragmatic Perspective.
      aug:
        au:
          Beradze, Marianna
          Fichman, Sveta
          Meir, Natalia
        affil:
          Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
          Talpiot College of Education, Holon, Israel
          Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
      su:
        Speech
        Autism
        Multilingualism
        Analysis of variance
        Memory
        Speech disorders
        Children
        Statistical correlation
        Data analysis
        Kruskal-Wallis Test
        Descriptive statistics
        Theory of mind
        Research
        Statistics
        Asperger's syndrome
        Comparative studies
        Data analysis software
      sug:
        subj:
          Speech
          Autism
          Multilingualism
          Analysis of variance
          Memory
          Speech disorders
          Children
          Statistical correlation
          Data analysis
          Kruskal-Wallis Test
          Descriptive statistics
          Theory of mind
          Research
          Statistics
          Asperger's syndrome
          Comparative studies
          Data analysis software
      ab: Purpose: Monolingual autistic children show distinct patterns of linguistic mazes (disfluencies), such as fewer filled pauses (e.g., "uh," "um") and utterance-initial connectives (e.g., "and"), than non-autistic peers. Maze types are multifunctional, but some (e.g., filled pauses) are used primarily for pragmatic, listener-oriented purposes such as signaling an upcoming delay, while others (e.g., repetitions) reflect speaker-internal processes such as lexical retrieval. This study examined the separate and combined effects of autism and bilingualism on children's maze production, exploring whether different types are primarily listener- or speaker-oriented, thereby contributing to the ongoing debate about their function in spontaneous speech. Method: Four groups of children aged 5-9 years participated: bilingual Russian--Hebrew autistic (n = 20), bilingual non-autistic (n = 27), monolingual Hebrew autistic (n = 17), and monolingual non-autistic (n = 22). Narratives, elicited using the LITMUS Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives, were analyzed for various maze types. Results: The results indicated that while autism and bilingualism alone did not predict maze rate, their joint influence systematically interacted with specific maze types. Monolingual autistic children showed higher rates of phonological fragments, inter-utterance silent pauses, and prolongations, but lower rates of the utterance-initial connectives ve "and" and filled pauses than non-autistic peers. Bilinguals in both groups produced more intra-utterance silent pauses. Among autistic children, bilinguals used connectives more often but produced fewer prolongations and inter-utterance silent pauses than monolinguals. Conclusion: Bilingualism may enhance communicative adaptability in autistic children by strengthening narrative cohesion through greater use of connectives and fewer inter-utterance silent pauses.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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