Autistic communication & interaction styles
DIVERSITY IN COMMUNICATION METHODS
Speech, vocalisations, words, sentences, phrases, AAC, body language, facial expressions, pointing, signing, symbols, alphabet charts, pen / paper, communication books, objects, electronic devices, sending pictures, memes, gifs, Makaton, BSL, braille, laughing, crying, emojis, email, texting, messaging, voice notes, body movements, music, behaviour, pointing, gesture, echolalia, stimming, text-to-speech / speech-to-text.
THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS TO COMMUNICATE!
Some autistic people use spoken language as their predominant method of communication, some are minimally speaking, situationally mute, and some are nonspeaking.
The Communication Pyramid is a widely used model in SLT practice, which suggests children develop communication skills in a linear order. But this model is misleading for many reasons:
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Speech sounds aren't the last stage of development; what about inference / pragmatics?
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Skills aren't finished; they emerge and develop alongside each other
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This model excludes neurodivergence and differences in language development
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It has ableist undertones due to speech being at the top of the hierarchy (emphasis on speech)
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Autistic language does not always follow a linear trajectory; it can move forwards and backwards
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There is a lack of evidence to support it (Morgan & Dipper, 2018)
Autistic children may have additional communication difficulties such as:
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Situational Mutism
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Dysfluency (stammering)
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Expressive or receptive difficulties
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Apraxia / dyspraxia
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Speech / phonological difficulties
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Voice disorders
INFO DUMPING
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Talking alot about a topic in great detail
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Telling someone about a special interest
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A way of building a connection with someone
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Sharing extensive knowledge about a topic
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A way to initiate an interaction
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Longer conversational turns
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Overlapping speech during the conversation
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Showing someone how much you know about a subject
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Sharing excitement about a topic
Neurodivergent people who use speech love to info-dump and is a valid way of sharing information. The feeling of being so passionate about something can feel so exhilarating. To a neurotypical person this is often labelled as: poor turn-taking, social deficits, interrupting, lack of reciprocity, ignores social cues, repetitive, verbose, lack of awareness of social conventions.
It's all about perception. If we re-frame these 'deficits' and view them through a neurodivergent lens, we can acknowledge that autistic communication is just a different way of communicating.
ECHOLALIA
Echolalia is the repetition of sound, words, phrases. For example: repeating a phrase you've just heard, repeating a line from your favourite film, repeatedly pressing a button on a device which elicits a sound. If you search for echolalia on the internet, you'll find this (awful) definition which is stigmatising and inaccurate:
"meaningless repetition of another person's spoken words as a symptom of a psychiatric disorder"
- OXFORD DICTIONARY
Gestalt Language Processing
From Ausome Speech: "Gestalt Language Processing is a form of language development that moves from whole, memorized phrases to single words. It’s estimated that between 75-90% of Autistic children develop language through NLA. (Prizant & Rydell, 1984; Blanc 2012). These scripts or Gestalts come from movies, videos, and things overheard and memorized. A style of language development with predictable stages that begins with production of multi-word “gestalt forms” and ends with production of novel utterances. (ASHA 2021)".
Gestalt Language Processors learn language using longer phrases first then break them down into single words combining. Natural language development that starts with ‘gestalts’ (units of meaning of any size), breaks down smaller ‘mitigated gestalts’ (mitigations / chunks), breaks down again into single words, then builds into phrases, then sentences. The Natural Language Acquisition Pathway (Blanc 2012) has 4 main stages:
Stage 1 - Echolalia: Strings of language repeated from communication partners, songs, media. Can be short or long.
Stage 2 - Mitigated: Strings of language that are mixed and matched. Freeing part of something and using it in different ways.
Stage 3 - Isolation of single words: Language that is more in context. Gestalt are being broken down.
Stage 4+ - Self-generated language: Language that's in context and looks like grammar (even if it's not perfect grammar). Starts off simple then increases in complexity.
Pragmatic functions of gestalts:
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Requesting
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Protesting / refusing
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Yes/no
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Commenting
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Greeting
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Social turn taking
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Asking questions
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Describing
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Directing
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Gaining attention
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Answering questions
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Labelling
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Expressing feelings
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Self-regulation