Gaze avoidance and perseverative language in fragile X syndrome and autism spectrum disorder: brief report

ABSTRACT

Gaze avoidance and perseverative language impact pragmatics in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS). We examined these features during conversation samples in boys with ASD (n = 10) and boys with FXS and ASD (FXS+ASD; n = 10). Both groups had similar high rates of gaze avoidance and topic and conversation device perseverations, yet these features were not correlated with one another. Boys with FXS+ASD produced a higher proportion of single utterance perseverations. Results from this study highlight the need for future research to identify potential mechanisms influencing the presence of language perseverations and gaze avoidance.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• eye gaze avoidance
• fragile X syndrome
• perseverative language
• pragmatics

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the children and families who participated in this research. We also thank Susan Ellis Weismer and Lyn Turkstra for their comments on this project. We would like to thank Susen Schroeder, Kellie Willis, Emily Lorang, Holly Huth, Sara Kover, Courtney Venker, Rachel Brewer, Michelle Cramer, Erin Schwartz, Courtney Ramczyk, and Kirsten Larson for their help with recruitment, data collection, transcription, data coding, and data entry.

Declaration/Statement of Interest

This study was funded NIDCD grants R03 DC011616 (Sterling) and T32 DC05359 (Ellis Weismer), NICHD grants T32 HD007489 (Mailick) and P30 HD03352 (Messing), and start-up funds from the University of Wisconsin-Madison awarded to Audra Sterling.