To facilitate multisensory processing, the brain binds multisensory information when presented within a certain maximum time lag (temporal binding window). In addition, and in audiovisual perception specifically, the brain adapts rapidly to asynchronies within a single trial and shifts the point of subjective simultaneity. Both processes, temporal…

Emotional competence (EC) refers to a set of skills to identify, understand, and respond to one's own emotions and those of others. It plays a fundamental role in socialization processes, where children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) show marked deficits. However, due to the similarities between these…

Purpose: Acoustic-prosodic entrainment, defined as the tendency for individuals to modify their speech behaviors to more closely align with the behaviors of their conversation partner, plays an important role in successful interaction. From a mechanistic perspective, acoustic-prosodic entrainment is, by its very nature, a rhythmic activity.…

In this study we show that the perception of lateral variants by Puerto Rican listeners changes according to who the listener believes is speaking. Puerto Rican listeners heard sentences with target words featuring either rhotic [voiced alveolar tap or flap] or lateral [l] (amo[voiced alveolar tap or flap] -- amo[l]) codas, a sociophonetic…

This study explored the impact of mild bilateral or unilateral hearing loss on auditory, social, and behavior skills in early school-aged children. Thirty-two children (aged 5-9 years) were evaluated with parent and teacher questionnaires. Most outcomes were within the range of expected scores. However, functional auditory skills were below…

It has been recently theorized that atypical sensory processing in autism relates to difficulties in social communication. Through a series of tasks concurrently assessing multisensory temporal processes, multisensory integration and speech perception in 76 children with and without autism, we provide the first behavioral evidence of such a link.…

This study examines the impact of a general education classroom-based sensory program for students exhibiting sensory processing differences in the school environment. Students were divided by age and degree of sensory needs between control and experimental groups, with teachers of students in the experimental group implementing the recommended…

We tested the relation between vocal emotion and vocal pitch perception abilities in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and pairwise matched adults with typical development. The ASD group had impaired vocal but typical non-vocal pitch and vocal timbre perception abilities. The ASD group showed less accurate vocal emotion…

This study investigated neurodevelopmental changes in sound processing by recording mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to various degrees of sound complexity in 18 mildly to moderately autistic versus 15 healthy boys aged between 6 and 15 years. Autistic boys presented with lower IQ and poor performance on a range of executive and social…

This dissertation investigated the effects of technological mediation on second language (L2) learning, focusing, as a case study, on gains in listening perception of the subtle but important feature of pitch placement in Japanese. Pitch accent can be difficult to perceive for non-native speakers whose first language (L1) does not rely on pitch or…

Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between brain tumour location and core areas of cognitive and behavioural functioning for paediatric brain tumour survivors. The extant literature both supports and refutes an association between paediatric brain tumour location and neurocognitive outcomes. We examined…

Fifteen children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and twenty-one children without ASD completed six perceptual tasks designed to characterize the nature of the audiovisual processing difficulties experienced by children with ASD. Children with ASD scored significantly lower than children without ASD on audiovisual tasks involving human faces…

Adolescents with and without learning disabilities (14, 16, and 18 years old) were tested to determine whether they differed in auditory, visual, and/or multisensory social perception abilities. The adolescents with learning disabilities at all age levels were not as adept at understanding nonverbal social information regardless of whether it was…

This study investigated the perception of emotions and the social skills of 60 eighth-graders, half with and half without learning disabilities (LD). Results indicated that the performance of LD adolescents was significantly poorer than peers in the perception of emotion via either auditory, visual, or combined auditory-visual modes. Although both…

The purpose and design of a longitudinal study of Project Head Start is summarized in this document, the fourth in a set of ten reports documenting the project. (Material from Project Report 3 was used extensively in preparing this document.) The study was designed to evaluate on a nationwide basis the Head Start Educational Services and to…