Table 2.
Group means (and SDs) of total counts and proportions (%) for microstructural measures.
| Microstructural measure | ENNI (A3) story | ASD-HL (N = 16) | ASD-LL (N = 14) | TD (N = 15) | Chi-square (χ2)-value | Bayesian statistics (BF) |
Interpretation *p < 0.05, **p < 0.005, ***p < 0.001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lexical diversity (%) | 65.1 | 60.5 (7.7) |
57.7 (7.1) |
56.6 (10.2) |
1.69 | 0.044 | ASD-HL = ASD-LL = TD |
| Simple clause | 15 (34.1%) |
7.8 (4.1) |
8.3 (2.6) |
6.1 (2.5) |
2.30 | 0.067 | ASD-HL = ASD-LL = TD |
| Coordinate Clauses | 8 (18.2%) |
13.2 (5.5) |
8 (2.0) |
9.3 (5.0) |
5.14 | 8.428 | ASD-HL > ASD-LL** ASD-HL > TD* |
| Subordinate Clauses | 25 (56.8%) |
7.8 (3.8) |
5.1 (4.3) |
11.1 (2.8) |
4.32 | 7.648 | ASD-LL < TD** ASD-HL < TD* ASD-LL = ASD-HL |
| Syntactic complexity (%) | 68.7 | 72.6 (13.5) |
60.1 (12.2) |
76.8 (7.4) |
19.76 | 5.039 | ASD-LL < TD* ASD-HL = ASD-LL ASD-HL = TD |
| Subordination index (%) | 75.7 | 37.1 (14.1) |
35.1 (16.4) |
56.3 (13.1) |
9.38 | 6.389 | ASD-HL, ASD-LL < TD* ASD-HL = ASD-LL |
| na- (subjunctive) complementizer | 10 (22.7%) |
0.37 (1.1) |
3.2 (1.8) |
0.6 (0.7) |
7.01 | 0.664 | ASD-HL = ASD-LL = TD |
| oti-(that)/pu-(that-factive) complementizer | 5 (11.4%) |
5.6 (2.3) |
0.6 (1.4) |
5.6 (2.3) |
7.32 | 12.360 | ASD-LL < ASD-HL, TD** ASD-HL = TD |
| Verb-complement clauses | 15 (34.1%) |
6 (2.3) |
3.7 (2.6) |
6.2 (2.5) |
24.99 | 1.650 | ASD-LL < ASD-HL, TD* ASD-HL = TD |
| Modifier clauses | 7 (15.9%) |
2.5 (3.1) |
1.5 (2.8) |
5 (1.5) |
38.52 | 13.49 | ASD-HL < TD* ASD-LL < TD** ASD-HL = ASD-LL |
ASD-HL, high-language children with Autism Spectrum Disorder; ASD-LL, low-language children with Autism Spectrum Disorder; TD, typically-developing children; ENNI: Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (Schneider et al., 2005).