Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often demonstrate communication difficulties. These challenges fall into three primary language categories:
- Receptive Language: The ability to understand words and phrases that one hears
- Expressive Language: The ability to produce words and phrases to meaningfully communicate with others
- Pragmatic Language: The social use of language, including nonverbal communication and perspective taking
Children with ASD generally have better expressive than receptive language abilities, which can result in others mistakenly believing the child understands what is being said to them. Pragmatic language skills are always impaired, as they serve as an essential diagnostic criterion. Specific atypical communication behaviors include the following:
- Echolalia: Immediately repeating words or phrases
- Scripted Speech: Repeating words or phrases that were previously heard (from conversations, movies, etc.)
- Neologisms: Using made-up words
- Idiosyncratic Speech: Patterns of odd speech
- Pedantic Speech: Overly formal speech
- Pronoun Reversal/Confusion: Speaking in the third-person or reversing I/you
- Atypical Intonation/Prosody: High pitched or monotone speech
- Atypical Fluency: Jerky or overly fast/slow speech
- Hand-Over-Hand Gesture: Using other’s hands to complete tasks
- One-Sided Conversational Exchange: Absence of a back-and-forth exchange
- Topic Control: Inability to have conversations on topics they do not choose
These challenges inherently affect the child’s ability to develop social relationships and achieve academic success. Working with a speech therapist can help to reduce these barriers.
Reference:
Saulnier, C.A., & Ventola, P.E. (2012). Essentials of autism spectrum disorders evaluation and assessment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.