Association between the degree of autism and permissiveness of pragmatic impairments in Japanese-speaking adults with and without autism spectrum disorder

Authors

  • Manabu Oi Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University
  • Ryuko Mizutani Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University
  • Junko Fukuda Hiratani Children’s Clinic
  • Michio Hiratani Hiratani Children’s Clinic

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.26745

Keywords:

autism spectrum disorder, autism spectrum quotient, communication checklist - adults, pragmatic impairments

Abstract

Twenty-seven pragmatic skills and social engagement sub-items and 7 language structure sub-items from the Communication Checklist – Adult were rated by 124 typically developing (TD) adults and 29 adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on a 5-point scale. The results indicated that the higher the score of the TD adults on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the more they evaluated pragmatic impairments as non-problematic; however, no correlation was found between their AQ score and evaluation of language impairments. In contrast, the higher the score of the adults with ASD on the AQ, the more they evaluated both pragmatic and language impairments as problematic. The relationships between AQ scores and the permissiveness of pragmatic impairments in adults are discussed.

Author Biographies

  • Manabu Oi, Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University

    Manabu Oi is emeritus professor of communication disorders at Kanazawa University, Japan. His specialization is assessments of and interventions in communicative impairments seen in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Over the last two decades, his research interest has focused on pragmatic disability in individuals with ASD. His recent publications include articles on the quantitative aspects of communicative impairment and autistic permissiveness of pragmatic impairments (Hanabusa et al., 2018). He is currently finalizing the standardization of the online version of the Test of Pragmatics of Japanese for Children.

  • Ryuko Mizutani, Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University

    Ryuko Mizutani (PhD, Osaka University) is a certified public psychologist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan. Her research interests concern the communicative impairments seen in children with ASD, in particular pragmatic language deficits, coming to fruition as verification of the reliability and validity of the Test of Pragmatics of Japanese for Children (Mizutani et al., 2021a, 2021b). Her current research focuses on the development of pragmatic skills in children with ASD through parent–child interactions or interventions.

  • Junko Fukuda, Hiratani Children’s Clinic

    Junko Fukuda (PhD, Osaka University) is a licensed speech-language-hearing therapist in Japan. Her research interests concern collocation errors shown by individuals with ASD. Her recent research findings indicate that collocation errors seen in adults with ASD differ from those in second language learners in terms of the degree of similarity between collocation errors and presumed correct collocation, and that adults with ASD rated collocation errors produced by their peers with ASD as being more appropriate than did typically developed adults (Fukuda, Hiratani, Miura, and Oi, 2021a, 2021b).

  • Michio Hiratani, Hiratani Children’s Clinic

    Michio Hiratani is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Fukui, and a guest professor of child development at Kanazawa University, Japan. He specializes in neurodevelopmental disorders, including specific learning disability, ASD, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. His recent publications are on parenting (Suzuki et al., 2015), ventral striatum dysfunction in children (Tagikuchi et al., 2015), and the catalysis of oxidized carbon blacks for cellulose hydrolysis (Gabe et al., 2022). His latest research focuses on the early detection of developmental dyslexia, a longitudinal study of associated co-morbidities, and the development of interventions.

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Published

2024-01-31

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024)

Section

Articles

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© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

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How to Cite

Oi, M., Mizutani, R., Fukuda, J., & Hiratani, M. (2024). Association between the degree of autism and permissiveness of pragmatic impairments in Japanese-speaking adults with and without autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 15(1), 36-48. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.26745