Conversational Prosodic Entrainment in Youths with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display unusual patterns of speech. Dr Heike Lehnert-LeHouillier and her colleagues from New Mexico State University in the USA, have undertaken one of the first studies to assess linguistic alignment, also known as entrainment, in the conversations of children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD. Their research concluded that when compared with a control group who were matched in terms of age, gender and non-verbal IQ, young people with ASD do show different entrainment levels across their conversations.