Altered engagement of the speech motor network is associated with reduced phonological working memory in autism.

Nonword repetition, a common clinical measure of phonological working memory, involves component processes of speech perception, working memory, and speech production. Autistic children often show behavioral challenges in nonword repetition, as do many individuals with communication disorders. It is unknown which subprocesses of phonological working memory are vulnerable in autistic individuals, and whether the same brain processes underlie the transdiagnostic difficulty with nonword repetition.

Persistent Neurobehavioral Markers of Developmental Morphosyntax Errors in Adults.

Purpose Child language acquisition is marked by an optional infinitive period (ages 2-4 years) during which children use nonfinite (infinitival) verb forms and finite verb forms interchangeably in grammatical contexts that require finite forms. In English, children's errors include omissions of past tense /-/ and 3rd-person singular /-/. This language acquisition period typically ends by the age of 4 years, but it persists in children with language impairments.

Shared neuroanatomical substrates of impaired phonological working memory across reading disability and autism.

Background: Individuals with reading disability or individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized, respectively, by their difficulties in reading or social communication, but both groups often have impaired phonological working memory (PWM). It is not known whether the impaired PWM reflects distinct or shared neuroanatomical abnormalities in these two diagnostic groups.

Methods: White-matter structural connectivity via diffusion weighted imaging was examined in sixty-four children, ages 5-17 years, with reading disability, ASD, or typical development (TD), who were matched in age, gender, intelligence, and diffusion data quality.

Development of verbal passive in Williams syndrome.

Purpose: To experimentally investigate knowledge of passives of actional (hold) and psychological (love) verbs in children with Williams syndrome (WS). Passives are usually reported to be in line with mental age in WS. However, studies usually focus on passives of actional verbs only.