Topics in ASD: Language & Communication

Question 1

What three elements is communication defined through?

Answer 1

1. Sender
2. Receiver
3. Medium/Message

Question 2

What is language?

Answer 2

• it is rule governed
• it is symbolic and arbitrary
• it is cultural

Question 3

What is speech?

Answer 3

speech is the vocal production of language

Question 4

What is output?

Answer 4

other forms of language production (ie: ASL, Written language, etc..)

Question 5

True or False: Altman said “Language, quite simply is a window through which we reach out and touch each other’s minds”

Answer 5

True

Question 6

What are the levels of symbolic communication?

Answer 6

1. Awareness
2. Pre-symbolic
3. Early Symbolic (concrete)
4. Symbolic (abstract)

Question 7

What is the “awareness” level of symbolic communication?

Answer 7

-no clear response and no objective in communication

Question 8

What is the “Pre-Symbolic” level of symbolic communication?

Answer 8

communicates with eye gaze, gestures, purposeful, moving towards object/sounds

Question 9

What is the “early symbolic” level of symbolic communication?

Answer 9

• it is concrete

- use of pictures or other symbols (sign language) to communicate, limited vocabulary

Question 10

What is the “symbolic” level of symbolic communication?

Answer 10

• it is abstract

- uses a significant amount of vocabulary (speaking, signs, pictures) to communicate

Question 11

What is the purpose of social communication?

Answer 11

• exchange and express intentions
• indirectly control the environment (obtain/reject something)
• regulate social interaction
• express an emotion or interact with someone
• receive and convey information and ideas

Question 12

True or false: social communication is more than just talking or speaking?

Answer 12

TRUE

Question 13

How is social communication more than just talking or speaking?

Answer 13

• attend, recognize, and interpret the thoughts/ideas of others based on the context, gestures, or words they use
• use language and thinking skills to engage in a mutual exchange of attentional and mental states with others so they can act upon the perceived message

Question 14

What is pivotal to language learning?

Answer 14

joint attention and social referencing

Question 15

When does joint attention emerge, when is it well-established, and what is the child doing?

Answer 15

• emerges @ 9months and well-established by 18 months
• child responding to other’s bid for joint attention
• child initiating joint attention

Question 16

What is social referencing?

Answer 16

child looks at the adult to make sure they are watching

Question 17

what is social pragmatic theory?

Answer 17

children need to understand the communicative intent of others

Question 18

What are the preverbal and early language stages, and what are their coinciding months?

Answer 18

• perlocutionary stage (0-8 months)
• illocutionary stage (8-12 months)
• locutionary stage (12-18 months)

Question 19

During the Perlocutionary stage what social behaviors does the child have?

Answer 19

• cooing
• crying
• fussing
• smiling
• laughing
• looking
• smiling

Question 20

During the illocutionary stage what kind of intentional communication skills do babies have?

Answer 20

• gestures
• pointing
• gaze
• vocalization

Question 21

During the illocutionary stage, what does Bates say are the functions of communication for babies?

Answer 21

• proto-imperatives: lay the basis for commands or requests
• proto-declaratives: allow a child not to ask, but to share things, so they call the adults attention to show them something (lays the basis for conversation skills later on)

Question 22

How many communicative acts per minute does a child have during the illocutionary stage?

Answer 22

-2.5 acts/minute

Question 23

During the illocutionary stage, what do children with ASD look like?

Answer 23

• they do not develop the full range of communicative intents
• they do a lot more of the proto imperatives

Question 24

What are the child’s communicative abilities during the locutionary stage?

Answer 24

• 12-18 months
• able to name where things are, what things are, and how they’re feeling
• comprehension outside of routines (ie: able to understand “balance”)
• first words spoken
• rapid increase in spoken vocabulary

Question 25

What does the rapid increase in spoken vocabulary look like for a child in the locutionary stage? (12-18 months)

Answer 25

- 15 months: 3 words - 18 months: 50-100 words (+/- 100) - 3-5 Communicative acts per minute

Question 26

What does the child's communicative development look like from 18-24 months?

Answer 26

- 300 words (+/- 150) - telegraphic speech (ie: sit big boy chair" vs. "sit in the big boy chair") - pragmatic developments: answer and ask questions, take 1-2 turns per topic

Question 27

What are some early communication deficits (i think she's still talking about 18-24 months) for children with ASD?

Answer 27

- delayed onset of speech - atypical preverbal vocalizations - decreased rate of preverbal communication - low responsiveness to speech

Question 28

What does early communication look like for a child with ASD?

Answer 28

- delayed and deviant use of gesture - less pretend and symbolic play - limited imitation skills (orally, vocally, behaviors, sounds, etc)

Question 29

True or false: the prevalence of nonverbal children is increasing

Answer 29

False, it is decreasing. -it used to be about 40% of children w/ ASD were nonverbal now it's 20-30%

Question 30

For nonverbal children with ASD what does their communication look like?

Answer 30

- less use of gestures - echolalia - maladaptive behaviors - It may be good to use AAC devices

Question 31

What does Pre-K communication development look like at 24 months?

Answer 31

- 300 words - uses grammatical morphemes - sentences - 50-70% intelligible

Question 32

By age 5, what does Pre-K communication development look like?

Answer 32

- 6,000 words - mastered of grammatical forms - 4-6 word sentences - 100% intelligible - speech errors may persist (ie: /r, l, s/)

Question 33

What do Pre-K pragmatics look like?

Answer 33

- use language to accomplish social goals - range of functions increases (pretending, telling stories, talking about the future, hypothesizing) - oral narratives emerge - take longer turns and maintain topics for longer - use polite forms

Question 34

What do verbal difficulties with ASD look like for Pre-K communication development?

Answer 34

- pronoun reversals - idiosyncratic word use (ie: happy birthday song=on the verge of breakdown) - immediate and delayed echolalia - atypical language learning - perseverate - voice and prosody

Question 35

What do adolescent communication skills generally look like?

Answer 35

- complex syntax | - advanced semantics

Question 36

What do pragmatics for adolescents generally look like?

Answer 36

- narration - persuade/negotiate - sarcasm - slang - figurative language

Question 37

What do adolescents with ASD look like?

Answer 37

- topic management/termination (may use overly complex sentences, speak too formally, don't adjust style depending on who they're talking to) - problems with changing and sharing of topics - theory of mind deficits - sparse conversation - problems with eye-contact & prosody

Question 38

In terms of ASD and social communication behaviors, what do they have issues with?

Answer 38

interpersonal relatedness

Question 39

How do people with ASD have difficulty with interpersonal relatedness?

Answer 39

- not always able to interpret the intentions of others - not always able to initiate/maintain shared focus with others - restricted language development and use - inadequate use of nonverbal skills - narrow interests and exceptional abilities limits their conversational turn taking

Question 40

In summary, what does communication with ASD children look like?

Answer 40

- there are central deficits - pragmatic problems are core - must address language and communication deficits!