Co-speech gesture comprehension in autistic children

Co-speech gestures accompany or replace speech in communication. Studies investigating how autistic children understand them are scarce and inconsistent and often focus on decontextualized, iconic gestures. This study compared 73 three- to twelve-year-old autistic children with 73 neurotypical peers matched on age, non-verbal IQ, and morphosyntax. Specifically, we examined (1) their ability to understand deictic (i.e., pointing), iconic (e.g., gesturing ball), and conventional (e.g., gesturing hello) speechless video-taped gestures following verbal information in a narrative and (2) the impact of linguistic (e.g., vocabulary, morphosyntax) and cognitive factors (i.e., working memory) on their performance, to infer on the underlying mechanisms involved. Autistic children displayed overall good performance in gesture comprehension, although a small but significant difference advantage was observed in neurotypical children. Findings suggest that combining speech and gesture sequentially may be relatively spared in autism and might represent a way to alleviate the demand for simultaneous cross-modal processing. Les gestes co-verbaux accompagnent ou remplacent la parole dans la communication. Les & eacute;tudes & eacute;valuant la compr & eacute;hension de ces gestes par les enfants autistes sont rares, pr & eacute;sentent des r & eacute;sultats inconsistants et se concentrent g & eacute;n & eacute;ralement sur des gestes iconiques propos & eacute;s sans contexte linguistique. Cette & eacute;tude a compar & eacute; 73 enfants autistes & acirc;g & eacute;s de trois & agrave; douze ans & agrave; 73 enfants neurotypiques appari & eacute;s en & acirc;ge, en QI non verbal et en comp & eacute;tences morphosyntaxiques. Nous avons examin & eacute; (1) leur capacit & eacute; & agrave; comprendre des gestes d & eacute;ictiques (e.g., pointage), iconiques (e.g., geste repr & eacute;sentant un ballon) et conventionnels (e.g., saluer de la main) compl & eacute;tant une phrase dans un r & eacute;cit, ainsi que (2) l'impact des facteurs linguistiques (e.g., vocabulaire, morphosyntaxe) et cognitifs (e.g., m & eacute;moire de travail) sur leur performance, afin de mieux comprendre les m & eacute;canismes sous-jacents impliqu & eacute;s. Globalement, les enfants autistes ont bien compris les gestes, bien qu'une diff & eacute;rence faible mais significative ait & eacute;t & eacute; observ & eacute;e en faveur des enfants neurotypiques. Ces r & eacute;sultats sugg & egrave;rent que la combinaison s & eacute;quentielle de la parole et du geste pourrait & ecirc;tre relativement pr & eacute;serv & eacute;e dans l'autisme. Cette pr & eacute;sentation s & eacute;quentielle pourrait ainsi constituer une strat & eacute;gie permettant d'all & eacute;ger la difficult & eacute; du traitement simultan & eacute; de ces modalit & eacute;s.