英文摘要 |
Previous studies indicate that oral language deficiency is a common problem among children with mental retardation and children with autism, and the magnitude of such impairment is proportional to the severity of mental retardation. The study was to investigate the differences in vocabulary, pragmatics, and syntax between the children with moderate mental retardation and autistic children with mental retardation. Oral language behaviors of studied subjects were videotaped under various natural environments. The language samples were then transcribed for content analysis. The subjects included a group of 12 children with mental retardation and a group of 12 children with autism, aged between 6 and 12. Each group was divided into two subgroups matched by age, sex and IQ. The differences in vocabulary, pragmatics, and syntax were analyzed. The findings of the study are as follows: 1.The most frequently used vocabulary was subject, verb, and object in both groups of mental retardation and autism. In addition, children with mental retardation exhibited more adverbs than autistic children. 2.The group of mental retardation showed the same performance as the group of autistic children in simple sentence. However, children with mental retardation expressed better ability in complex sentence. 3.Children with mental retardation had better ability in instrumental, social, and personal pragmatics than children with autism. 4.Children with autism revealed more echolalia behaviors than children with mental retardation. |