Polysemous Word Learning in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Polysemous words have multiple meanings that relate to one another through a combination of features. Due to the variety of shared features among meanings, it seems likely that polysemous word learning involves attending to multiple features of a more frequent or “prototypical” meaning and associating them with shared features in extended meanings. Ambiguous word learning may not involve the same process, due to less feature overlap in meanings. Previous literature has suggested that children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), exhibit difficulty forming prototypes and categorizing information, due to enhanced attention to low-level perceptual features. Our study suggests that although there are no differences in polysemous versus ambiguous word learning for either typically developing (TD) or ASD children initially, children with ASD may not take advantage of the relationships amongst polysemous word meanings to the same extent that TD children do and may not consolidate the meanings into memory over time. Specifically, children with ASD may be less likely to use those shared features to recognize relationships amongst meanings. Further research should investigate implications of these potential word learning differences in the development of communication difficulties in children with ASD.