韻律線索對輕度自閉症兒童理解非字面語言之諷刺意涵的影響

Abstract

本研究旨在探究韻律線索能否提高輕度自閉症（簡稱輕度ASD）兒童理解非字面語言之諷刺意涵的表現。採因果比較研究和準實驗研究的設計，研究對象為20名輕度ASD兒童與20名一般發展兒童，總計40名8-12歲的國小中高年級學童。評量內容主要是為以自編的「非字面語言之諷刺理解作業」測量輕度ASD兒童和一般發展兒童在聆聽中性韻律線索和諷刺韻律線索時，對5種不同類型諷刺言語（「語意倒置」、「誇張」、「輕描淡寫」、「與先前對話不相關的回答」和「讚美」）的理解情形，並探究兒童對諷刺言語的理解表現可能與哪些因素相關。以混合設計三因數變異數分析和皮爾森積差相關進行資料分析，結果發現：一、輕度ASD兒童對諷刺言語的理解表現顯著落後於一般發展兒童。二、在理解諷刺言語時，兒童聆聽諷刺韻律線索時的表現顯著優於聆聽中性韻律線索時的表現。三、兒童在「誇張」和「與先前對話不相關的回答」之諷刺言語類型中的理解正確率較高，在「語意倒置」、「輕描淡寫」和「讚美」之類型諷刺言語中的理解正確率較低。四、當檢驗不同組別與不同韻律線索對不同類型諷刺言語之理解表現的作用時，結果發現其之間並無相互的影響。五、當檢驗不同組別與不同韻律線索對諷刺言語之理解表現的作用時，能發現其之間無相互的影響。六、當檢驗不同組別對不同類型諷刺言語之理解表現的作用時，發現其之間無相互的影響。七、不同韻律版本、諷刺類型在諷刺言語的理解表現上存在交互作用。在「語意倒置」、「輕描淡寫」和「讚美」類型中，兒童聆聽諷刺韻律線索時的表現顯著優於聆聽中性韻律線索時的表現；且無論聆聽中性韻律線索或諷刺韻律線索，兒童對不同類型的諷刺言語之理解正確率都會有顯著差異，但聆聽諷刺韻律線索時，各諷刺類型之間的正確率差異較兒童聆聽中性韻律線索時少。八、在諷刺韻律版本中，兒童對諷刺言語的理解表現與其整體的溝通能力、語法能力、敘說凝聚性能力、開啟話題能力、刻板化的語言能力、情境能力、非口語溝通能力和興趣能力均呈中度的相關，表示以上能力越好，兒童聆聽諷刺韻律線索時理解諷刺言語的能力也越好。綜此，本研究建議在輕度ASD兒童日常溝通訓練或教學中，加強其對口語韻律線索之覺知，並且可在對輕度ASD兒童使用諷刺言語時，加強並突顯諷刺之韻律線索，以助於其能正確理解說話者之諷刺意涵。The purpose of this study was to investigate whether prosody could improve the performance of children with mild Autism Spectrum Disorder (mild ASD) in understanding irony in non-literal language. A causal comparative study and a quasi-experimental design were used, and the subjects were 20 children with mild ASD and 20 age-matched children with general development, a total of 40 middle and high grades of elementary school children aged 8-12 years old. A self-designed"irony comprehension task" were used to measure individual children’s listening comprehension of the 5 different types of ironic speech with two sets of prosodic cues, including the neutral prosodic cues and ironic prosodic cues. The five types of irony speech included of semantic inversion, hyperbole, understatement, meaning replacement and praise. In addition, children’s background information and social communication abilities were assessed to explore the potential correlations with their comprehension performance of irony. Through mixed design of three-way ANOVA and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation analysis, the results showed that:1.The comprehension of irony in children with mild ASD is significantly poorer than that of children with general development.2.In understanding ironic speech, the performance of children listening to ironic prosodic cues is significantly better than that of neutral prosodic cues.3.The correct rate of children's ironic comprehension is higher in the types of "hyperbole" and "meaning replacement", and the correct rate is lower in the types of "semantic inversion", "understatement" and "praise". 4.The interaction effect of different groups and different prosodic cues on the comprehension performance of different types of ironic speech is not significant between them. 5.The interaction effect of different groups and different prosodic cues on the comprehension performance of ironic speech is not significant between them.6.The interaction effect of different groups and different types of ironic speech on the comprehension performance is not significant between them.7.Different prosodic cues and different types of ironic speech have interactive effects on the comprehension performance. In the"semantic inversion", "understatement" and "praise" types, children performed significantly better when listening to ironic prosodic cues than when listening to neutral prosodic cues. And regardless of listening to neutral prosodic cues or ironic prosodic cues, children's comprehension performance for different types of ironic speech vary significantly. Notably, when listening to ironic prosodic cues, the difference in comprehension performance between irony types was less than when children listened to neutral prosodic cues.8.With the ironic prosody, children's comprehension performance and the holistic communication ability, grammatical ability, narrative cohesion ability, initiating conversation topics, stereotyped language skills, situational skills, non-verbal communication skills and interest ability were all moderately correlated with each other, indicating that the better the above skills, the better the children's ability to understand ironic speech by listening to ironic prosodic cues. The present study suggests that in the dailycommunication training of children with mild ASD, the emphasis on the awareness of prosody cues should be strengthened; when using ironic words to children with mild ASD, using prosodic cues should be strengthened and highlighted to help them improve their understanding of the irony speech.