象似性手势和指示性手势对自闭症儿童动作相关词汇学习的影响

The Effects of Iconic Gestures and Deictic Gestures on Action-related Vocabulary Learning in Children with Autism

本研究考察了自闭症儿童在象似性手势、指示性手势和无手势条件下的动作相关词汇的学习情况。选取三组语言水平匹配的高功能自闭症儿童,分别在象似性手势、指示性手势和无手势条件下进行动作相关词汇的学习。在第一次学习结束(T1)和最后一次学习结束2~3天后(T2)分别进行词汇理解和词汇命名测试。结果发现:(1)与其他手势类型相比,象似性手势对自闭症儿童的词汇理解有明显的促进作用;(2)无论哪个组别,学习次数的增加均有助于词汇学习成绩的提高;(3)对词汇命名,所有组别在短期学习条件下的表现都较差,但随着学习次数的增加,象似性手势对词汇命名的促进作用逐渐凸显。研究表明,象似性手势对自闭症儿童动作相关词汇的学习有一定的促进作用;命名任务下象似性手势的促进作用受到学习次数的调节,当学习次数足够多时,象似性手势的优势才得以体现;指示性手势对自闭症儿童动作相关词汇的学习并未表现出促进作用。

The present study aimed to investigate action-related vocabulary learning in children with autism under the conditions of iconic gesture,deictic gesture,and non-gesture.Three groups of language-level matched children were selected to learn eight action-related vocabularies under the conditions of iconic gesture,deictic gesture,and non-gesture.All children were trained through pictures,situational stories,and videos.The vocabulary comprehension test and vocabulary naming test were completed at the end of the first learning session(T1)and the last learning session(T2).The results showed that:(1)Iconic gestures significantly benefitted vocabulary comprehension in children with autism beyond deictic gesture and non-gesture;(2)The increase in the number of learning sessions contributed to the improvement of vocabulary learning performance,regardless of the group;(3)All groups'naming scores were poor in the short-term learning condition,but as the number of learning sessions increased,the facilitative effect of iconic gesture on naming test became more prominent.The study has shown that iconic gestures can promote action-related vocabulary comprehension in children with autism.For the naming test,the promoting effect was regulated by the number of learning.The iconic gestures may successfully enhance vocabulary naming in children with autism by increasing the training intensity.In addition,deictic gestures do not significantly promote the action-related vocabulary learning of children with autism.