Pragmatic characteristics of speech in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): a pilot study on Italian-speaking children living in Campania

Pragmatics is widely considered the most impaired area in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), especially in terms of implicit conversation norms, inferential processes, and narrative abilities. This study tackles this issue by examining the pragmatic and conversational characteristics of semi-spontaneous speech in a cohort of 17 Italian-speaking school-age children with High-Functioning Autism, compared to a Control Group of 17 typically developing (TD) peers. We analyzed the conversational turns on morphosyntactic, pragmatic and fluency levels. The results revealed several differences between the two groups: in particular, the texts produced by ASD children are syntactically less articulate and internally fragmented, with a reduced use of textual connectors. They also produced fewer filled pauses and contributed little to the exchange with the communicative partner compared to their peers. Taken together, these findings support the notion of pragmatic language impairment in ASD but also reveal significant interactions between morphosyntactic, pragmatic and fluency levels that deserve further study.