The roles of theory of mind, vocabulary and prosody in word reading and reading comprehension in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The roles of theory of mind, vocabulary and prosody in word reading and reading comprehension in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders Shelley Xiuli Tong, Ruby Wong & Joanne Arciuli Purpose: This study investigated the roles of theory of mind, vocabulary and prosody in word reading and reading comprehension for normally intelligent school-aged Chinese children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Method: A set of measures of theory of mind, Cantonese prosody, vocabulary, word reading, and narrative text comprehension were administered to 42 7- to 9-year-old children with ASD and 55 typically developing children matched on age, nonverbal intelligence, and working memory. Results: Children with ASD performed significantly worse on theory of mind and text reading comprehension than children in the control group, but their word reading, vocabulary and prosodic sensitivity were comparable to their typically developing peers. Vocabulary and prosodic skills uniquely predicted word reading in both children with ASD and the control children. However, only theory of mind and vocabulary accounted for unique variance of reading comprehension in children with ASD after controlling for nonverbal intelligence and word reading skills. Conclusions: These results suggest that theory of mind, prosody and vocabulary play different roles in word reading and reading comprehension in children with ASD, and that theory of mind is a critical factor affecting reading comprehension in Hong Kong Chinese children with ASD.