Media exposure in the development of non-local accents in autism

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Foreign Accent Syndrome in autistic children: what is the relationship between exposure to media and the presence of a non-local accent?

  • IRAS ID

    300391

  • Contact name

    Srdan Medimorec

  • Contact email

    s.medimorec@tees.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Teesside University

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    N/A, N/A

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is the name given to a condition in which a client is perceived to begin speaking in an accent different to their native tongue (Asogwa et al., 2016). FAS usually occurs following trauma to the brain however there have been informal accounts of FAS seen within Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This area is severely under researched with little to no explanation as to why this phenomenon occurs. Due to the significant gap in the research, the current study aims to explore whether autistic children who present with a non-local accent, are exhibiting a variant of FAS or whether it is a related, but distinctly different phenomenon, found amongst autistic children, in the absence of brain injury. The researcher will investigate whether exposure to media (as reported by parents) is related to the presence of a non-local accent. The study will consist of two groups: children with non-local accents and children with native accents, all children will have a diagnosis of ASD and will be screened for brain injury. The minimum target sample size is 28 (14 in each group) and is based on an a priori power analysis, whilst also taking into account the prevalence rate of accents seen within the ASD population. The hypothesis is that increased media time will be related to a greater probability of having a non-local accent.

  • REC name

    East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    22/EE/0045

  • Date of REC Opinion

    15 Mar 2022

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion