This study aims to evaluate the relevance of a new computerized test for pragmatic inferences (TIPi) in children aged 8 to 12 YO, presenting a typical development, autism spectrum disorders, another neurodevelopmental condition and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
By virtue of pragmatic inference-making, a listener can go above and beyond the linguistic meaning of the speaker's utterance in order to understand what the speaker intended to communicate. Such inferences allow the listener to understand inter alia irony, metaphor, indirect requests, scalar and ad-hoc implicatures. Autistic individuals have typically been described, by clinicians and language specialists, as tending towards having a literal understanding of language and as being deficient with respect to understanding a speaker's intended meaning, and these difficulties have a major impact on quality of life and social participation. Therefore, assessing these abilities seems essential, both for diagnosis purpose and to draw a clear description of an individual's functioning profile. Yet, no tool is available for children aged 8 to 12 in French. A new test named TIPi has been developed to resolve this issue. This new test is computerized and runs in a touch pad. The main goal of the present study is to evaluate the ability of the TIPi to discriminate autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children from typically developing (TD) children. Secondary goals are (i) to measure the typical development of these abilities in TD children in this age range, (ii) to assess the developmental link these skills might have with other cognitive of language abilities (mentalizing, cognitive flexibility, core language skills, central coherence), and (iii) to compare the pragmatic profile of ASD children with another neurodevelopmental condition: developmental language disorder, in order to test the relevance of this test for differential diagnosis.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
232
Computerized tests
Ch Le Vinatier
Bron, France
Discrimination power of the measure assessed by the dissociation of the developmental trajectories of children with ASD compared to TD children in the composite score of the TIPi.
The dissociation between the developmental trajectories of these two groups will be assessed by comparing the coefficients of the linear regressions linking performance in the TIPi (composite score) and chronological age in these two groups.
Time frame: One day
Sensitivity of the TIPi composite score (measuring pragmatic inferencing) to typical development in the targeted age range: 8 to 12 years oldin the targeted age range: 8 to 12 years old
Sensitivity to age of the TIPi composite score is assessed by the alpha coefficient of the regression analysis linking the composite score to chronological age in the TD group.
Time frame: One day
The TIPi composite score provides additional information compared to other cognitive assessments typically provided in the global assessment of children with ASD
The predictive power of the best fitted multiple regression model explaining this measure by - jointly - performances in language task, mentalizing task, cognitive flexibility task, central coherence task and age (this predictive power being measured by the adjusted R2 of the model).
Time frame: One day
Discrimination power of the measure assessed by the dissociation of the developmental trajectories of children with ASD compared to children with DLD in the composite score of the TIPi.
The dissociation between the developmental trajectories of these two groups will be assessed by comparing the coefficients of the linear regressions linking performance in the TIPi (composite score) and chronological age in these two groups.
Time frame: One day
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