Prosody, gesture, and self-adaptors: A case study of Autism Spectrum Disorder for large corpora collection

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) display distinctive speech patterns and bodily movements. This pilot study examines spontaneous interactions between an individual with ASD and a typically developing peer (age 19), incorporating monological and dialogical contexts. The analysis, grounded in the Language into Act Theory framework, explores the information structure of the speech and linguistic parameters influenced by prosody, such as utterance boundaries, information structure, speech disfluency, mean length of prosodic units, and speech rate. The study also employs Kita's model to analyze bodily movements, including gestures and self-adaptors, and their temporal relation with speech. Notable findings reveal that ASD speech is characterized by a monotonous information structure and prosodic contour, featuring slower and longer units with a limited rate variation and information type. On the gestural side, the ASD subject exhibits fewer gestures and more self-adaptors, with some instances of asynchrony between gestures and speech. This pilot study serves as a foundational step for a broader corpus-based project dedicated to exploring the development of pragmatic skills in individuals with ASD.