1. “ Listen My Children and You Shall Hear”: Auditory Preferences in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders Rhea Paul, Katarzyna Chawarska, Carol Fowler, Domenic Chiccetti, Fred Volkmar Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven and Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, New Haven, Haskins Laboratories Abstract As presented by Allie Urbano. Objective Method Examined auditory preferences for toddlers with ASD and matched groups of a) (TD) typical age-mates b) (DD) age-mates with non autistic developmental disorders c) (TD language match) younger children matched for language age The study measured time spent listening to auditory stimuli that were created to exemplify language patterns that were studied in typically developing infants. Results The results for the study are that all four groups listened longer to CD (motherese) than the rotated stimuli but the degree of preferences differed. The toddlers with ASD listened to CD the shortest amount of time. Also, Age matched TD’s had a preference for speech with pauses inserted at grammatical boundaries. This was a surprise and the article notes that further study is needed to prove that as children acquire language they change their focus on language spoken around them. Discussion The ASD toddlers had a reduced preference for CD language compared to TD children. The reduction in auditory attention to CD speech could affect the rate of language acquisition. Also the study found that toddlers in the one word stage have preferences for words with English language patterns and toddlers in multi word stage have a preference for sentences with grammatical pauses. This could suggest that children change focus as they acquire language. The study suggests that children with ASD could have the basic language learning mechanisms but they have trouble focusing. Also toddlers with DD had similar problems in the study to those with ASD but less pronounced. Autism Spectrum Disorder is usually not diagnosed before age three. This study investigates the theory that abnormal attention to language may be one root of the communication deficits prevalent in the ASD population. The study uses Head-Turn Preference Procedure (HPP) which children with ASD are able to participate in because they do not always give a verbal cue, in this study the attention span on a given piece of language is looked at. Introduction Conclusion References Acknowledgements Paul, Rhea and Katarzyna Chawarska and Carol Fowler and Domenic Chiccetti and Fred Volkmar. ““Listen my Children and You Shall Hear”: Auditory Preferences in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Vol 50 (2007 October) 1350-1364. To see whether or not toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder show differences from contrast groups in preferences in listening to speech. The study confirms the hypothesis that children with ASD perform differently than peers in auditory preference paradigms and that performance in these tasks is related to concurrent and later language development. Conclusion The problem at hand in this article is that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) do not have the same language abilities as peers that do not have Autism Spectrum Disorder. The experimenters tested to see if children with Autism Spectrum Disorder respond to language in the same way as children without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The outcome of this experiment is that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder do listen differently to language that children without Autism Spectrum Disorder. National Alliance for Autism Research, National Institute of Mental Health Research, STAART, NIDCD, National Institute of Environmental Health Services, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4 th ed.). Washington, DC: Author