Conversational Turn-Taking and Topic Manipulation Skills of Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty with social interaction and communication. The present study investigated the characteristics of conversational turn-taking and topic manipulation skills in school-aged children with high-functioning ASD (HFA). Methods: The participants were a total of 36 children: 12 children aged 7-12 years old with HFA, 12 normal children matched for the chronological age, and 12 normal children matched for the language age with the HFA group. Conversational samples were collected individually by the examiner. The performances of turn-taking (total frequency, rates of initiation, maintenance, overlap, and breakdown) and topic manipulation (total rates of initiation, maintenance, and change of topic, and appropriate/inappropriate rates of initiation, maintenance, and change of topic) were measured. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the conversational characteristics of three groups. Results: The results of the present study were as follows: 1) in turn-taking, significant difference was observed in the rates of initiation 2) in topic manipulation, there were significant differences in the appropriate rates of initiation, total rates of maintenance, appropriate rates of maintenance, total rates of change, and appropriate/inappropriate rates of change among three groups.