The Comprehension of Mandarin Wh-questions in Children with and without Autism

This project examines Mandarin wh-question comprehension in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing (TD) peers. It investigates whether the difficulties observed in wh-movement languages extend to Mandarin, a wh-in-situ language, and explores differences between subject and object wh-questions. We hypothesize that ASD children will have greater difficulty with object wh-questions due to their longer dependencies. Using eye-tracking within the Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL) paradigm, the study compares 35 ASD children (mean age = 60.94 months) with 38 TD children (mean age = 29.66 months, matched on expressive vocabulary). Preliminary results indicate that while TD children comprehend both question types, ASD children reliably understand only subject wh-questions, supporting the involvement of covert movement in Mandarin.