Reference information:

Mills, B. D., Lai, J., Brown, T. T., Erhart, M., Halgren, E., Reilly, J., & ...
Moses, P. (2013). Gray Matter Structure and Morphosyntax Within
a Spoken Narrative in Typically Developing Children and Children
With High Functioning Autism. Developmental Neuropsychology,
38(7), 461-480. doi:10.1080/87565641.2013.820306
Topics addressed:
The article looked at the relationship between gray matter structures
and morphosyntax production in spoken narratives in young children. It
went into detail about the specific language areas of the brain and
their effect on performance in addition to breaking down individual
parts of narratives.
Summary (include question, participants, methods, results)
The study included seventeen typical developing children and eleven
children with high functioning autism between the ages of six and
thirteen. The children all came from English-speaking backgrounds.
The typically developing children had normal academic functioning and
were not on medication of any kind. The children with autism were all
diagnosed with autism by researchers before starting the actual study.
Using picture books for narratives and unstructured, spontaneous
conversation, language samples were collected. The researchers
predicted that typically developing children would have specific
correlations between language areas of the brain and their language
performance. They also predicted that children with high functioning
autism (HFA) would show different correlations or just generally lack
correlations between cortical structures and language performance.
Children with HFA were found producing shorter narratives with more
morphological errors, fewer types of complex syntax, but with almost
as many emotion terms as the typically developing children. The study
found children with HFA had a thinner cortex and greater cortical
surface in multiple areas particularly in the temporal, fontal and
cingulate cortices. Children with HFA also had early brain grow and an
abnormally large brain volume in their early years, with growth slowing
down around the age of seven years.
Assess: (follow link for assessment questions)
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/03/
The article contained a lot of professional jargon, so I assume it was
written for SLPs or people interested in language that knew about all of
the specific areas. Being that I knew many of the terms, it was easy for
me as a college student to understand. The abstract gave a concise
preview to the article that really helped to pick out main ideas. The
ideas of the article reflect those of other articles that I have come
across linking size of cortical matter to language development
performance.
Reflect:

(How was this source helpful? How does it change how you think about
this topic? How does it support or argue your topic?
This article was helpful because it opened up the idea that brain size
matter for language development, particularly in those with HFA. It
helped me to understand language development and performance in
children with HFA, as I knew nothing about the relationship before. The
article supported my topic by proving that there are scientific findings
linked to language development in children with HFA.
Annotated Bibliography Worksheet CDIS 402
(Adapted from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/)