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Language and Communication
 The language development of children with learning disabilities and mentalretardation is described, for the most part, as delayed rather than different. Thesame cannot be said about the language development of children with autism. AsMichael Rutter (1978) put it, "It is well established that the problem is not just thatautistic children use little speech but rather that their language, when it develops, isabnormal in many respects" (p. 86). Many children with autism do not developspoken language at all (from 28-61%, depending on which studies are accepted). Inthis section, we will look at the development of language and communication inthose autistic children who do develop spoken language. Two specific language differences frequently associated with autism are echolaliaand pronoun reversal. Ecliolalia may be defined as the literal repetition of speechproduced by others (Prizant & Du'chan, 1981). Long & Long (1994) identified threekinds of echolalia (see Table 7.1). Immediate echolaiia occurs within a brief timeperiod after the speaker talks. Delayed echolalia involves the repetition of words orphrases that may have been heard days, weeks, or even years previously.Sometimes echolalic individuals repeat back exactly what they hear, but often theychange the structure of the original utterance. This is called mitigated echolalia.Although echolalia is found among many individuals with disabilities (and even atcertain stages of normal language development), it occurs more frequently amongindividuals with autism (Cantwell, Baker, & Rutter, 1978) and persists for far longerthan in normally developing children (Howlin, 1982). The traditional view of echolalia has been that it indicates a lack of comprehensionability and is noncommunicative (Schreibman & Carr, 1978). Many languagetraining programs have actively discouraged-and even punished-the use of echolaliaby children with autism. However, in the past few years views about echolalia havechanged. Today, many believe that echolalia actually serves an importantcommunicative role for individuals with autism. Barry Prizant (19S3). for example,holds the position that people U uh autism may use echolalia in an intentional way,to maintain social interaction. Prizant and Duchan i I9SI) went so far as to delineateseven communicative functions that echolalia may serve ('see Table 7.2). Theirresearch, as well as that by others, should remind us that we must look at the totalcontext-not just at the spoken language produced-to fully understand what may becoing on in an interaction.Another language characteristic associated with autism is pronoun reversal. Manychildren with autism sayyouwhen referring to themselves, ormewhen referring to another person. At one time those errors were thought to indicate a problem withpsychosocial development. That is. it was hypothesized that these errors indicatedthat autistic persons had nosense of self . Pronouns such asyouorIhad no meaning for them. However, a number of alternative land more likely) explanationsfor the pronoun reversals of individuals with autism have been suggested. Theseinclude:
Echolalia: Difficulty with pronoun usage may be the result of echolalia (Bartak &Rutter, 1976). [fa parent says What arc you doing? and the child responds What are
 
 you doing? the child has not only echoed the utterances but has also used anincorrect pronoun.Cognitive development: Wordslike Iand  youare
deictic
forms-that is, words that change their referent in relation to the context. A ball is always a ball, but sometimesI is I and sometimes I is you, depending on the context. This, cognitively,is a
more complex notion and one that may be more difticull for children withcognitive difficulties (Tager-Flusberg, 1981).
Lack of attention: Oshima-Takane and Benaroya (1989) have claimed that childrenwith autism have trouble with pronouns, because the children fail to attend to pronoun usage by others. They found, however, that when autistic children wereguided to attend to an adult model, they could learn to use pronouns correctly.We do not have a firm understanding of why children with autism persist in making pronoun errors; however, the explanations listed above hold hope that this pronoun problem can be corrected with appropriate intervention.
 TABLE 7.1 Examples of EcholaliaImmediateEcholalia Teacher says: "'Gloria, what did you do last night?" Studentresponds: "'What did you do last night"Delayed EchoialiaWhile working quietly at a desk, child suddenly shouts: '"What'sthe matter with you? You can't do that."MitieatedEcholalia Teacher says: "So. what did you do last night?" Studentresponds: "Night." TABLE 7.2 Seven Communicative Functions of Immediate EcholaliaCategory
Interactive
 Turn takingDeclarative Yes answerRequestUtterances used as turn fillers in an alternating verbal exchangeUtterances labeling objects, actions, or location (accompanied bydemonstrative gestures)Utterances used to indicate affirmation of prior utteranceUtterances used to request objects or others' actions. Usuallyinvolves nutisated echolalia
Noninteractive
Non focusedUtterances produced with no apparent intent and often in slates of high arousal (e.g., fear, pain)Utterances used as a processing aid, followed by utterance or action
 
RehearsalSelf-regulatoryindicating comprehension of echoed utteranceUtterances that serve to regulate subject's own actions. Produced insvnchronv with motor activkv
Early Language and Communication Development
It is not easy to examine the early language development of children with autismbecause these children are often not identified as autistic until age 2 or 3. However,the studies that have been clone suggest that right from the start, languagedevelopment is ajxoblemfor children with autism. Of course, for many youngchildren with autism, spoken language develops slowly, if at all. When languagedoes develop, it is usually significantly delayed (Tager-Flusberg, 198 1). Butlanguage development is more than delayed-it is different. For example. Wing(1971) asked parents of children with autism to complete a retrospec-tivequestionnaire about the development of their child. The parents reported that theirchildren did not indicate that they wanted to be picked up, did not respond to theirmother's voice, and did not point to objects. Bartak, Rutter, and Cox (1975) citedparent reports that babbling in their autistic children was absent or delayed. Severalresearchers have reported that children with autism have deficits in joint attention(e.g., Kasari, Sigman, Mundy, & Yirmiya, 1990). That is, they are less likely thantypically developing children to share their attention with a caregiver over an objector activity. This may have an impact on the development of communicativeinteraction. Thus, there are indications that the language and communicationdifficulties of children with autism are apparent even in the very early stages of development.
Development in Specific Language Domains
In addition to general differences in language and communication development,researchers have found delays and differences in specific aspects of language. Wewill examine some of the research evidence for specific differences.
Phonology
Studies of the speech production of children with autism have found that in thosechildren who develop spoken language, the development of phonological rulesfollows the same course found in normally developing children. Bartolucci, Pierce,Streiner, and Eppel (1976) studied the phonological production of children withautism in comparison to children with mental retardation who were matched formental age. They found that both groups used similar phonemes and made similarerrors in the production of more advanced sounds and thereby concluded thatverbal autistic children have a normal, but delayed, seguence of phonologicaldevelopment.On the other hand, many observers have reported that children with autism haveconsiderable trouble with suprasegmental features of sound production (stress and
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