Adverb Use in Iraqi Autistic Children: A Case Study

This study is concerned with the Iraqi autistic patients' conceptualization of adverbs of time and place at the levels of production and recognition. To measure the mental ability of a particular category of autistic patients in terms of adverb use, a group of seven to ten years of age, in the school of Hama'im Al-Salam for Language Impaired Children have been variously tested; using spontaneous oral tests by their own teachers. A number of twenty-five patient-students are selected to be representative enough. After collecting the data and conducting a qualitative and quantitive analysis, the study has come up with certain conclusions. Chief among them is that Iraqi autistic patients fail, most of the time, to recognize time adverb more than place adverbs using the silence as a strategy to show their failure in recognition and production of adverbs. Furthermore, certain paralinguistic cures are employed as the rolling of the eyes, nodding the head and smiling.