My ASD Child

“Do children with high functioning autism tend to have problems with speech and language? How can parents tell if their child has problems in this area, and what type of interventions are recommended?” Language seems to develop on time in kids with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA), but words, while formulated according to the rules, seem to lack functional effectiveness, because they most often are used to express immediate needs or to expound on the youngster’s favorite subjects. Young people with AS or HFA seem not to see the main idea or the pivotal point. They tend to have problems with abstraction, inference, or practical, functional language. Also, their semantic understanding is limited, which frequently shows up in tests and instructional measures of listening comprehension. Instead of delaying language development, AS and HFA impairs the subtleties of social communication. These boys and girls have difficulty understanding nuances (e.g., irony, s...

Language seems to develop on time in children with Aspergers (high functioning autism), but words, while formulated according to the rules, seem to lack functional effectiveness, because they most often are used to express immediate needs or to expound on the child’s favorite subjects. The child with Aspergers seems not to see the main idea or the pivotal point. They tend to have problems with abstraction, inference, or practical, functional language. And their semantic understanding is limited, which frequently shows up in tests and instructional measures of listening comprehension. Instead of delaying language development, Aspergers impairs the subtleties of social communication. Aspergers children have difficulty understanding nuances such as irony, sarcasm and fanciful or metaphoric language. Many Aspergers children take language literally. Expressions such as “watching paint dry,” or “smart as a tack” leave these children very confused. Children with Aspergers are of...

Question "Does a child with level 1 autism typically have delayed speech?" Answer Approximately 50% of kids with ASD Level 1 or high-functioning autism (HFA) have delayed speech. While many of them grow out of this by age five, others go on to experience other language problems. These generally fall into one or more of the following three areas of linguistics: 1. Pragmatics— Pragmatics refers to language usage and the way that context relates to meaning. Kids with HFA often have difficulty in holding a normal conversation where there is give and take and social interaction. While most children learn these skills by observing others, those with the disorder may need some personal coaching. Problems with pragmatics manifest in the following forms: does not allow the other person to talk does not use people’s names focuses exclusively on topics that interest them gives too much detailed information interrupting others lack of facial expression and e...

In this post, we will look at the ingredients that are critical to making “social skills interventions” successful for kids with Aspergers. Here you will find basic principles for teaching social skills that capitalize on the strengths of such kids, while specifically addressing their deficits: Make the abstract concrete— Relative to some academic skills, teaching social competence involves abstract skills and concepts. Because kids with Aspergers tend to be concrete and literal, the abstract nature of these interpersonal skills such as kindness, reciprocity, friendships, thoughts, and feelings makes them especially difficult to master. A first critical step is to define the abstract social skill or problem in clear and concrete terms. The behavior must be explicitly operationalized and the youngster taught to identify it and differentiate it from other behaviors (Is this a friend or not a friend? Is this a quiet or a loud voice? Were you being teased or not? Are you followin...

"Any tips on how to help my high functioning child who has problems making friends, mostly because he initiates conversations that are off-topic or one-sided? He also has problems following conversations from others - so he reverts back to his topic of interest (make sense?)." Pragmatic speech is language used to communicate and socialize (e.g., knowing what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and generally how to “act” around others during conversation). Many children with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) have difficulty using language in various social situations – even though they may have large vocabularies and are able to speak in full sentences that are clearly articulated. These “special needs” children may say words clearly and use long, complex sentences with correct grammar, but still have a communication problem if they haven’t mastered the rules for social language known as pragmatics. Children with pragmatic speech issues may embarr...

Many moms and dads of extremely verbal kids with Aspergers (high-functioning autism) are surprised when it is suggested that Speech Therapy may help their youngster with communication difficulties. The difficulties are not in how the youngster speaks or pronounces words, but rather in how the youngster perceives the meaning of other people's speech and how they respond to it. There are many expressions we use that are confusing to a youngster with Aspergers. Until you listen closely to the kinds of questions your youngster asks about what other people say, this problem is an easy one to miss. Here's an example reported by one parent: The other night my husband was holding a wooden bowl in his hands. Our younger son said "Can I see that?" and put out his hands to hold it. Our older son with Aspergers immediately asked "Why do people always say what they don't mean?" This had us puzzled until we dug a little deeper and found out the reason ...