Language and Communication
Contents
Basic Characteristics
Those with ASD display a range in language and communication capabilities. Some children with ASD are mute their whole lives, others babble or speak early in life but stop speaking later on, and there are some who display few language deficits (Asperger's Syndrome). Those who are mute sometimes learn to use other communication systems, such as pictures or sign language.
Children with ASD that are only mildly affected by language deficits might still have difficulty holding a conversation despite their large vocabulary. Prognosis for further speech development is poor for most children who have not developed any useful speech by 5, although there have been reported cases of children who acquired speech after 5 years of age. Many research studies used behavioral therapy to teach speech to older children with autism because of the success of popularity of these methods for younger children. Out of 64 studies examined in a meta-analysis, 167 individuals with autism developed speech after 5. Out of those individuals that started speaking after 5 year old, 37 individuals developed speech through behavior analysis methods (out of 27 published studies), 25 children developed speech after being taught American Sign Language (8 studies), 18 children developed speech while attending their school special education program (5 studies), six began speaking after typical speech language therapies, and eleven acquired speech while participating in computer based treatment programs. 1
Concepts affecting Social Communication
References
1. Pickett E et. al. Speech acquisition in older nonverbal individuals with autism: a review of features, methods, and prognosis.Cogn Behav Neurol. 2009 Mar;22(1):1-21. PMID 19372766
Related Information
- Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this construct (vote or nominate by editing this page):
- Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):
- CNP Level (What's this?)
- Cognitive Concept
External Resources
- Links out:
- Wikipedia: Joint Attention
- Google: Joint Attention
- PubMed: Joint Attention
- -ucla cognitive atlas- (coming soon!)
- Database links