Among the most characterizing (and recognizable) aspects of the language abilities of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a central role is played by suprasegmental alterations, both at the receptive and expressive levels. However, many of the current findings are far from conclusive.
This study fits within this line of research by investigating the rhythmic features of the speech of this clinical population. To this end, a corpus of narrative semi-spontaneous speech, produced by 14 school-aged children (6-10 y.o.) with high-functioning ASD and an equal number of peers with typical linguistic and cognit, was acoustically analyzed.
The results suggest that the phonetic atypicalities associated with ASD can be captured by the %V and VtoV metrics, in a model that allows for the observation of a significant slowing of speech associated with a consistent lengthening of vocalic intervals.