Reference information:

Walenski, M., Mostofsky, S. H., & Ullman, M. T. (2014). Inflectional

morphology in high-functioning autism: Evidence for speeded
grammatical processing. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders,
8(11), 16071621. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2014.08.009
Topics addressed:
The article addressed the grammatical and lexical processes in boys
with high functioning autism (HFA) and in a control group of boys who
were developing typically. The study focused on regular and irregular
past tense verbs in both groups to find an understanding of
morphological awareness in children with HFA.
Summary (include question, participants, methods, results)
The study looked at the difference in responses from typically
developing (TD) children and children with HFA. All of the participants
were boys ranging in age from seven to thirteen. The task was done on
the computer to limit the social interaction that can sometimes affect
results from children who have HFA. Accuracy and response times were
documented from both the TD group and the group with HFA. The
participants were asked to produce the past tenses of verbs in specific
sentences. The verb stems were shown alone and then in a sentence,
and finally in a third sentence looking for the past tense version. The
study found that children with HFA respond faster than TD children
when it came to regular past tense verbs with an ed ending. Children
with HFA also produced regular past tense verbs faster than irregular
past tense verbs whereas TD children showed no difference in speed.
Assess: (follow link for assessment questions)
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/03/
The article seemed to have been written for SLPs and those interested
in autism and morphology. The article was full of factual information
and clearly indicated how the study was done. Information about the
size of the brain in relation to autism was discussed, which further
confirmed the previous information I have obtained. Overall, the article
was straight forward, clearly organized, and written for an audience
with a strong background in the development or language.
Reflect:
(How was this source helpful? How does it change how you think about
this topic? How does it support or argue your topic?
At first this article didnt seem to be helpful, as it wasnt going into
detail about the link between morphology and autism. It mainly talked
about past studies and how the difference between regular and
irregular past tense verbs had never been looked at. However, I soon
found that the study done for this article did exactly that. It helped me
to understand that children with HFA are not that far off from TD
children but that they do process differently and its much easier for

them to recognize regular past tense verbs rather than irregular. It

supported my topic really well and helped me to better understand
morphological awareness in children with HFA.
Annotated Bibliography Worksheet CDIS 402
(Adapted from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/)