Do children with autism use shape to learn new words?
While typically developing toddlers consistently use an object's shape to learn its name, children with autism do not show this bias as a group, though those with larger vocabularies are more likely to do so.
Source
Investigating the shape bias in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders
What they did
Researchers tracked 35 typically developing toddlers and 32 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder over multiple home visits spaced 4 months apart. They used an eye-tracking setup to measure how long children looked at shape-matched versus color-matched novel objects after hearing a new name. The study also tracked children's vocabulary sizes and motor skills using standardized parent reports and clinical assessments.
What they found
Typically developing children showed a clear preference for shape-matched objects starting at 20 months of age. In contrast, children with autism as a whole did not show a consistent shape bias, even up to 54 months of age. However, individual children with autism who possessed larger vocabularies at earlier visits were significantly more likely to demonstrate a shape bias at later visits.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study cannot establish a causal link showing that acquiring a shape bias directly drives vocabulary growth, as the relationship is purely correlational. Additionally, the researchers only tested five novel objects, meaning they could not systematically isolate how varying degrees of visual complexity affect shape recognition. Lastly, the findings from this specific eye-gaze paradigm might not generalize to real-world social environments or physical object-sorting tasks.
Key terms
- shape bias
- The tendency of young children to generalize a novel name for an object to other objects of the same shape, rather than those of the same color or texture.
- intermodal preferential looking
- An experimental method where children's eye movements are tracked while they view side-by-side visual stimuli accompanied by a matching audio soundtrack.
- autism spectrum disorder
- A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges in social interaction, communication, and repetitive or restricted behaviors or interests.
- longitudinal study
- A research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables or participants over an extended period of time.
- lexicon
- The complete set of words and vocabulary known and used by a particular person.
- noun bias
- The early language development trend where infants and toddlers acquire nouns much more rapidly than verbs or other grammatical categories.
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Quiz yourself
What is the shape bias in language acquisition?
Common questions
Why would children with autism have difficulty with the shape bias?
Children with autism often focus on small, local physical details of objects rather than their overall global shape. This detail-oriented processing style can make it harder for them to notice and group objects by overall shape similarities.
Did any children with autism show a shape bias in this study?
Yes. Although the group as a whole did not show a consistent shape bias, there was high individual variability. Over one-third of the children with autism demonstrated a shape bias during a majority of their study visits.
How does vocabulary size relate to the shape bias?
The researchers found a bidirectional relationship: children with autism who had larger vocabularies early on showed a stronger shape bias later, and those with a stronger shape bias in the middle of the study showed greater vocabulary growth by the end.
Did the visual complexity of the toys affect how children categorized them?
Although the objects varied in complexity, such as the number of corners, there was no clear or consistent pattern showing that simpler objects made it easier for children with autism to use the shape bias.
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