Date of Award
2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology
Department
Communicative Disorders
First Advisor
Vanessa Harwood
Abstract
Background: The etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been a topic of debate among researchers for many years. Fundamental evidence, especially from twin studies, supports a strong genetic component. This evidence now prompts us to examine first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD. Many first-degree relatives, especially siblings and parents, often exhibit subclinical traits of autism, referred to as the Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP). Several researchers have investigated personality traits and pragmatic language skills; however, few researchers have investigated core language skills, particularly phonological working memory (PWM), in parents of children with ASD (pASD). Purpose: Past research has largely overlooked language features, specifically PWM, despite prominent researchers providing evidence linking ASD to deficits in working memory (Habib, 2019). Additionally, the current behavioral PWM measures may lack the sensitivity to detect the subtle differences associated with the BAP, further contributing to the gaps in understanding language skills in this population. Here, we attempt a novel scoring approach to a gold-standard PWM task, nonword repetition, to determine if differences exist in PWM skills between pASD and control subjects matched on age and gender. Methods: Participants included 19 pASD adults (Mean Age =46.14, SD = 11; M=3, F=16) and 19 controls matched on age and biological sex (Mean Age=46.70, SD = 12). All participants were native monolingual English speakers without any known neurological impairments, normal hearing, and normal or corrected vision. Parents self-reported that their child with ASD was diagnosed by a credentialed professional to be included in the study. The Nonword Repetition subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Second Edition (CTOPP-2; Wagner et al., 2013) was administered to measure PWM skills. We created a novel scoring system which accounted for word, syllable, and phoneme-level productions. Independent sample t-tests were used to determine if differences in nonword repetition performance were present at all levels of scoring. Results: Independent samples t-tests were used to determine differences in nonword repetition performance between pASD and controls at the word, syllable, and phoneme level. There were no significant differences in performance at the word, syllable, or phoneme levels. Conclusion: Differences in PWM skills were not present between pASD and controls in our current sample. Implications for scoring nonword repetition and other tasks of PWM may be considered as alternative measures to determine if PWM skills remain a biomarker of the BAP.
Recommended Citation
Galati, Giavanna, "USING A NOVEL APPROACH TO MEASURE PHONOLOGICAL WORKING MEMORY IN PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A NONWORD REPETITION STUDY" (2026). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 2732.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/2732