Autistic and non-autistic adults use discourse context to determine a speaker's intention to request.

The current study focuses on how autistic adults utilize context to determine whether ambiguous utterances (e.g., "I'm thirsty") are intended as indirect requests or as literal comment/questions.

Effects of Practice Variability on Second-Language Speech Production Training.

Background: Mastering the phonetics of a second language (L2) involves a component of speech-motor skill, and it has been suggested that L2 learners aiming to achieve a more native-like pronunciation could benefit from practice structured in accordance with the principles of motor learning.

Participants And Methods: This study investigated the influence one such principle, high versus low variability in practice, has on speech-motor learning for Korean adults seeking to acquire native-like production of English rhotics. Practice incorporated a commercially available intraoral placement device ("R Buddy," Speech Buddies Inc.

Structural and Contextual Cues in Third-Person Pronoun Interpretation by Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Neurotypical Peers.

This study investigates the use of structural and discourse contextual cues in the interpretation of third-person pronouns by children and adolescents with autism and their neurotypical peers. Results show that referent-biasing contextual information influences pronominal interpretation and modulates looking patterns in both groups compared to a context-neutral condition. These results go against the predictions of Weak Central Coherence and the notion that pragmatics in general is impaired in ASD, since the ASD group was able to use details in discourse context to influence the pronominal interpretation process.