Language development in people with autism spectrum disorder follows a complex three-phase process.
- Language or comprehension disorders affect people with ASD unequally.
- According to a new study, language comprehension in affected children occurs in three distinct phases.
- But some children may have a very good level of comprehension and difficulty with language.
Communication problems are among the main signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). But they affect the people concerned unequally, which questions the scientific community. In the specialist journal npj Mental Health Research, researchers from Boston University, in the United States, present the results of one of the largest studies carried out on language comprehension in children with ASD.
Autism spectrum disorders: language develops in stages
“While some children with ASD may have difficulty communicating verbally, others exhibit impressive vocabularies and the ability to speak in detail about specific topics.”recalls a communicated of the University.
To identify the causes of these differences, the research team analyzed data from more than 31,000 people with ASD, aged 4 to 21 years old. “The study was carried out thanks to parents via an application”, specifies Dr Andrey Vyshedskiy in this document. Their responses allowed researchers to analyze levels of language comprehension.
“The common intuitive belief is that the development of language understanding follows a linear trajectory: children acquire one grammatical rule at a time.explains the researcher. Based on a neurological approach, I predicted more than 20 years ago that instead of linear development, language occurs in three stages corresponding to three language comprehension mechanisms of increasing complexity.” This recent work has made it possible to confirm this hypothesis.
American scientists have observed three phases in language acquisition. The first, corresponding to “language of command”is marked by the understanding of the name and certain instructions such as “No” Or “stop” ; the second is the modification language which integrates numbers, colors, superlatives; and finally the syntactic language brings together all the elements not included in the other two.
Communication: rethinking the language and understanding of children with ASD
Their work also made it possible to differentiate the language and comprehension abilities of these children. “The current practice of characterizing children’s communication ability solely in terms of speech (i.e. verbal, nonverbal, or minimally verbal) is insufficient and one-sided, estimates the specialist. New findings show that communication skills can vary independently of verbal skills.” In short, the ability to understand language is completely distinct from the ability to speak.
Autism spectrum disorders: towards better support for children?
For Dr Andrey Vyshedskiy, these results should make it possible to improve support for autistic children and above all to better understand them. “Language comprehension in children is usually assessed based on vocabularyhe warns. This method of assessment may grossly misrepresent the child’s actual progress in language comprehension.” With these new results, new assessment methods can be created to advance language therapy.
