Research in Autism and Language Lab (ReAL Lab)
Focus of lab:
The current diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) no longer includes a language impairment. However, Dr. Zane, a linguist, has spent over a decade working with children on the spectrum, and has documented unusual language use and understanding among the children she's worked with. Thus, the focus of the Research in Autism and Language (ReAL) Lab is to examine language use and understanding by children and adolescents with ASD so that researchers and clinicians can better represent the way that individuals on the spectrum map language to concepts in the world around them. ReAL Lab research also examines language acquisition patterns in ASD in order to identify when/how the language acquisition trajectory of young children with autism diverges from that of typically developing children.
Current ReAL Lab projects examine:
- Pronoun, preposition, and determiner use by children with ASD
- Pronoun and preposition processing in ASD (using behavioral, eye-tracking and ERP methods)
- The relationship between multi-sensory processing differences and lexical acquisition in young children with ASD (using behavioral, eye-tracking, and ERP methods)