Facts, not thoughts and feelings Repetitive language and borrowed phrases One-sided conversation Conversational speed

Ghafoori Ahmadi - Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD, signs, symptoms and language related problems Apparent regression and Repetitive noises or language Some autistic children normally acquire words earlier at their life, but then stop talking altogether for several months and show apparent regression. Later, they start talking again with their slower rate of language development Siegel, 2008. Some children with ASD may use language sounds in very vocal ways to screech, grunt or shout. The purpose of these noises is usually not communicative, although the noise may change in tone when the child is excited or angry. Toddlers with ASD who have some language skills may repeat phrases over and over again. These phrases may be unrelated to what is going on around them. A child may repeat made-up words neologisms or words they have heard or misheard from an adult or the television echolalia Williams Wright, 2004. Some children with ASD have language ability but don’t use language much to communicate, have their needs met, chat and solve their problems. This leads to frustration, loss of temper and other problems in them. Some people with ASD are aware of their needs and how to get what they want for themselves. However, they are not aware that other people can also help and so may not approach others, or they have unique ways of sorting out the problem in a way that is not acceptable to others. Intonation and the production of sound and Mixing up pronouns: Intonation and the way language is used may be different in children with ASD. The child may have an unusually flat, slightly expressionless tone of voice or may not regulate the volume of his voice. Their volume control seems stuck on loud The classic picture of an autistic individual includes an impoverished ability to interpret or express emotion. The prosody of spoken language in autistic children is thought to lack emotional content Hubbard Trauner, 2007. Children with ASD may get the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ mixed up: ‘You want a drink’ meaning ‘I want a drink’ Boghdashina, 2005. They might also continue to refer to themselves by their own names, for example, ‘Jonathan wants a biscuit’. Although these things happen to most children, those with ASD may struggle with this concept for a great deal longer. Williams Wright 2004 discussed the following problems in autistic children when conversation develops. 1. Starting a conversation The child’s introduction to a conversation may be unusual. For example, the child might find less-than- subtle ways of attracting the adult’s attention, maybe moving the adult’s head, pushing or pulling the person’s cloth so that he can talk to her or using the adult’s hand as if it were a tool.

2. Facts, not thoughts and feelings

3 Ghafoori Ahmadi - Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD, signs, symptoms and language related problems The conversations of a child with ASD may be about factual information rather than being related to thoughts, feelings and opinions. Indeed, they may have some difficulty understanding what other people mean when they try to talk about their feelings.

3. Repetitive language and borrowed phrases

The language used by children with ASD may be repetitive rather than conversational. They may borrow phrases they have heard elsewhere, from a video, TV program, school or adults. These phrases are often used appropriately but have a slightly odd quality to them. Some professionals call this ‘delayed echolalia’ Boghdashina, 2003.

4. One-sided conversation

The child may want to talk about his own interests, unaware and uninterested in the response. Even if someone is bored or giving cues that they want to get away, the child on the autism spectrum may not have noticed. Building on a conversation that doesn’t center on the child’s topic of interest may be difficult. Turn-taking in conversation is also difficult for these children. In fact, in many ways a conversation with one of them is not a conversation at all because a conversation implies a movement to and from, the giving and receiving of information that can lead in many directions. To those conversing with children on the autism spectrum this give and take often feels absent, and the listener may feel that the conversation is only going in one direction, controlled by the child with ASD.

5. Conversational speed

In a conversation the slow processing speed of a child with ASD may make the listener feel uncomfortable and want to stop the interaction. The level of detail from the young person on the autism spectrum may be far too great or sometimes too little, with few cues to the listener about what the conversation is about or where it is going. Sometimes a child with ASD may start a conversation halfway through the story, leaving his listener feeling very perplexed.

6. Miscommunication and literal understanding