The relations of "the unique language" of a boy with autism spectrum disorder, accompanied by a slight developmental delay and restrictive context by his personal experience

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26590151
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Ryukoku University
• Principal Investigator: GOSHIKI Toru 龍谷大学, 文学部, 教授 (40332689)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 自閉スペクトラム症 / 独特な言語使用 / メディア接触の影響

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A longitudinal natural observation study was conducted on a boy with autism spectrum disorder, accompanied by a slight developmental delay (DQ=85), from kindergarten to third grade, to examine language and behavior that were understandable only in limited contexts connected to his experience. The results showed that, at first, his speech contained many lines repeated verbatim from anime (cartoons) and video games and was hard to understand for people who did not know the boy well. After starting elementary school, his speech became more flexible as he learned to read and write and his vocabulary developed. However, he continued to exhibit mildly obsessive behaviors and difficult-to-understand speech (lines from anime, etc.), and he also continued to play make-believe by himself, pretending that he was an anime character.

Free Research Field

発達心理学