Study of Prosodic Skills of Persian-Speaking Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on the Persian Version of Montreal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication (P.M.E.C.)

Background: Research indicates that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with prosodic skills, which include the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. While most studies focus on children, some findings suggest these challenges persist into adulthood. Methods: This comparative cross-sectional study used a quantitative approach to assess prosodic impairments in Persian-speaking adults with ASD. Thirteen Persian-speaking men with autism, aged 25 to 44 (mean = 32.84, SD = 4.17), participated. Their educational backgrounds ranged from third grade to 20 years of formal education. A control group of 26 healthy Persian-speaking men matched in age and education was also included. Prosodic skills were evaluated using five subtests from the Persian version of the Montreal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication (P.M.E.C.): linguistic prosody comprehension, linguistic prosody repetition, emotional prosody comprehension, emotional prosody repetition, and emotional prosody production. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Results: Participants with ASD performed significantly worse than the control group across all five subtests. Significant differences were found in linguistic prosody comprehension (p = 0.002), linguistic prosody repetition (p = 0.0001), emotional prosody comprehension (p = 0.004), emotional prosody repetition (p = 0.015), and emotional prosody production (p = 0.0001). These results highlight substantial deficits in both linguistic and emotional prosody among adults with ASD. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for targeted assessment and intervention strategies for prosodic impairments in adults with autism. The findings have practical implications for clinical, educational, and research settings.