Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by impairments
in social and communication development, accompanied by
stereotyped patterns of behavior and interest. The focus of this paper
is on the early development of communication in autism, and early
intervention for impairments in communication associated with this
disorder. An overview of components of communication is provided.
Communication characteristics that are diagnostic of autism are summarized,
with consideration of the overlap between social and communication
impairment, particularly for children with autism functioning
at the prelinguistic level. Early communication development
and predictors of communication functioning in autism are examined,
based on a review of prospective and retrospective studies. The
focus of the discussion then turns to intervention. Consideration is
given to the rationale for beginning intervention as early in life as
possible for children with autism. Implications of motor, imitation,
and play deficits for communication-based intervention are examined.
Finally, issues related to the design and delivery of intervention
for young children with autism are presented, along with a review of
the major early intervention approaches for autism.
DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION
The focus of this paper is on the early development of
communication in autism and early intervention for impairments
in communication associated with this disorder. Communication
is a broad concept, encompassing linguistic, paralinguistic,
and pragmatic aspects of functioning. The linguistic
domain includes phonological, morphological, syntactic, and
semantic rule systems.
Phonological rules establish how speech sounds (phonemes)
are combined to form words and how a particular
speech sound is to be pronounced given the context of the
speech sounds before and after it. Morphological rules
involve signaling grammatical information at the word level,
as when words are inflected with past tense markers such as
‘‘-ed’’. Syntax is a rule system that guides how words are
combined into sequences and hierarchical structures of
phrases and sentences. The semantic system involves the
mental ‘‘dictionary’’ of words and their meanings, how to
combine words to form meaningful relationships such as possession
(‘‘my shoe’’), abstract language processing (including
literal and nonliteral meaning), and formation of a gist from
a text or discourse.
Paralinguistic communication includes proxemics (e.g.,
use of space in communication as in distance between speaker
and listener), facial expression(e.g., rolling the eyes to indicate
that a comment was intended as sarcasm, or smiling as
criticism is given to convey tenderness and sincerity so that
the listener knows that the comment was made out of concern
rather than merely to criticize), intonation (e.g., using a
rising intonational contour at the end of a declarative syntactic
construction to signal that it is to be interpreted as a question
rather than as an assertion), and gesture. Pragmatics
involves discourse management (e.g., topic initiation and
maintenance), communicative intentions (variety expressed
and understood, as well as variety of forms used to communicate
intentions), and presupposition (making judgments about
the type and style of information presentation depending on
characteristics of the context, ranging from listener-specific
characteristics to setting
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in social and communication development, accompanied by
stereotyped patterns of behavior and interest. The focus of this paper
is on the early development of communication in autism, and early
intervention for impairments in communication associated with this
disorder. An overview of components of communication is provided.
Communication characteristics that are diagnostic of autism are summarized,
with consideration of the overlap between social and communication
impairment, particularly for children with autism functioning
at the prelinguistic level. Early communication development
and predictors of communication functioning in autism are examined,
based on a review of prospective and retrospective studies. The
focus of the discussion then turns to intervention. Consideration is
given to the rationale for beginning intervention as early in life as
possible for children with autism. Implications of motor, imitation,
and play deficits for communication-based intervention are examined.
Finally, issues related to the design and delivery of intervention
for young children with autism are presented, along with a review of
the major early intervention approaches for autism.
DEFINITION OF COMMUNICATION
The focus of this paper is on the early development of
communication in autism and early intervention for impairments
in communication associated with this disorder. Communication
is a broad concept, encompassing linguistic, paralinguistic,
and pragmatic aspects of functioning. The linguistic
domain includes phonological, morphological, syntactic, and
semantic rule systems.
Phonological rules establish how speech sounds (phonemes)
are combined to form words and how a particular
speech sound is to be pronounced given the context of the
speech sounds before and after it. Morphological rules
involve signaling grammatical information at the word level,
as when words are inflected with past tense markers such as
‘‘-ed’’. Syntax is a rule system that guides how words are
combined into sequences and hierarchical structures of
phrases and sentences. The semantic system involves the
mental ‘‘dictionary’’ of words and their meanings, how to
combine words to form meaningful relationships such as possession
(‘‘my shoe’’), abstract language processing (including
literal and nonliteral meaning), and formation of a gist from
a text or discourse.
Paralinguistic communication includes proxemics (e.g.,
use of space in communication as in distance between speaker
and listener), facial expression(e.g., rolling the eyes to indicate
that a comment was intended as sarcasm, or smiling as
criticism is given to convey tenderness and sincerity so that
the listener knows that the comment was made out of concern
rather than merely to criticize), intonation (e.g., using a
rising intonational contour at the end of a declarative syntactic
construction to signal that it is to be interpreted as a question
rather than as an assertion), and gesture. Pragmatics
involves discourse management (e.g., topic initiation and
maintenance), communicative intentions (variety expressed
and understood, as well as variety of forms used to communicate
intentions), and presupposition (making judgments about
the type and style of information presentation depending on
characteristics of the context, ranging from listener-specific
characteristics to setting
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