""Rather than becoming an expert in recognizing words, their brains slow down. Because these children can't distinguish what should be a familiar word, their brains work too hard, and they are unable to focus on new words. When they can't understand a word, they miss everything else that follows in a sentence," Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the university's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and an expert in how infants acquire language, explained in a prepared statement."

"Her team was scheduled to present the findings Friday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Seattle."

"The researchers used sensors to record the brain waves of children between 19 and 30 months of age as they listened to familiar words (dog, cat, ball, book) and unfamiliar words (bide, pint, rate, verb)."

"The pattern of brain activation in typically developing children showed markedly different responses to familiar and unfamiliar words. Their brain activity when hearing both types of words was centered in the temporal lobes of both hemispheres of the brain."

"Autistic children showed no difference in brain response when hearing familiar and unfamiliar words, which means they were unable to differentiate between the words, the researchers said. Brain activity when hearing
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