Filled Pause Use in Autistic Adults and Their First-Degree Relatives: Gender Differences and Within-Family Associations.

PURPOSE: Prior research indicates that filled pauses (e.g., um and uh) are a marker of pragmatic language. Although pragmatic language features run in families of autistic individuals, it is not clear whether variation in filled pause production of autistic adults is also familial. It is also possible that filled pause use is a subtle meaningful marker of gender differences. The present study examined filled pause production, a potential marker that may be linked to genetic liability, in autistic adults and their parents, and evaluated relationships with autism traits and the broad autism phenotype (BAP). METHOD: Autistic adults (n = 33 males, 10 females) and their parents (n = 15 fathers, 40 mothers) provided a monologic language sample, which were transcribed and analyzed for filled pauses, including um rate (ums out of total words), uh rate (uhs out of total words), and um ratio (ums out of total filled pauses). RESULTS: Autistic adult males and fathers produced higher rates of uhs and lower um ratios than autistic adult females and mothers, respectively. Among autistic adults, more autism traits were associated with lower um ratios and higher uh rates. Adult-filled pause use was associated with maternal filled pause use and paternal BAP features. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings build on research on gender differences in autism. The association between lower um ratio and more autism traits indicates that um may be a pragmatic marker related to core features of autism. The differential relationships in filled pauses of autistic adults and filled pauses and BAP features of their parents suggest that filled pauses may be familial. Findings have implications for examining the utility of filled pauses as markers of genetic liability for autism.