Atypical language development matters: A commentary on Ambridge (2020). Issue 5 (October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Naigles, Letitia R.
• Other Names: Marshall Chloë guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: First language. Volume 40:Issue 5/6(2020)
• Page Start: 621
• Page End: 625
• Publication Date: 2020-10
• Subjects: Autism -- lexical semantics -- shape bias -- syntactic bootstrapping -- syntax -- wh-questions; Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 401.9305
• DOI: 10.1177/0142723720902288
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-7237

Abstract

This commentary critiques Ambridge's radical exemplar model of language acquisition using research from the Longitudinal Study of Early Language, which has tracked the language development of 30+ children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) since 2002. This research has demonstrated that the children's capacity for abstraction at the grammatical level is not reducible to their lexical or pragmatic abilities. Moreover, the children's capacity for generalization at the lexical semantic level is more impaired than their grammatical abstractions. These findings cannot be accounted for by Ambridge's model of stored exemplars and domain-general analogizing.