Thai Phrase and Sentence Structures of Normal Versus Autistic Children

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to compare the phrase and sentence structures produced by normal and autistic children. Data Used fro analysis were collected from normal and autistic children who studied in the laboratory school of Kasetsart University. The analysis of the narrations produced showed that there were 468 sentences, consisting of 1,379 phrases, produced by the normal children, compared with 388 sentences, consisting of 936 phrases, from the autistic children. The two groups of children used different patterns of phrase and sentence. The normal children use 24 patterns of simple sentence, 8 patterns of complex sentence, 7 patterns of noun phrase, and 10 patterns of verb phrase. In contrast, the autistic children used 19 patterns of simple sentence, 5 patterns of complex sentence, 6 patterns of noun phrase, and 8 patterns of verb phrase.