Language and Cognitive Deficits in Children With Autism

Introduction: Language Deficits as Early Signs of Autism

Deficits in language development are one of the most commonly noted early signs that a child may be autistic. Autistic children often fail to meet appropriate developmental milestones in language. High-functioning autistics or individuals with Asperger's Syndrome usually do not show developmental delays in using language, but may communicate in an inappropriate manner. As Tager-Flusberg (2006) explains, "Autism is diagnosed on the basis of three primary areas of impairment: social functioning, language and communication, and repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests or activities... Research on autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders suggests that the social and communication impairments are unique and specific deficits that define the autism phenotype."

The extent to which social and communicative impairments in autism are interlinked remains hotly debated. It is generally agreed upon — and noted by researchers and parents alike — that there is a wide spectrum of difference in terms of language deficits among children with autism spectrum disorders. However, certain commonalities have been identified. Children with autism exhibit social impediments such as the inability to use eye contact or to converse in a reciprocal fashion with others, a lack of spontaneity, an inability to sustain reciprocal relationships with peers at a normal level, and difficulty adapting to different social contexts. Language deficits include delayed spoken language, "idiosyncratic use of words or phrases," and inappropriate or stilted body language (Tager-Flusberg 2006).

Social and Communicative Impairments in Autism

Autistic children also show difficulties in what has been called applying a "theory of mind" — they cannot project themselves into the minds of other people, even while they may be able to articulate the facts of a specific scenario. One well-known experiment illustrates this clearly:

Theory of Mind and Its Role in Language

Autistic children were introduced to two dolls, Sally and Anne, who were placed in a diorama in which the experimenter enacted a scene. Sally placed a marble in her basket and left the room, leaving the marble behind. Then Anne took the marble from the basket and put it in a box. The child was then asked to predict where Sally would look for the marble when she returned. To answer correctly, the child must disregard his or her own knowledge of reality — that the marble is now in the box — and respond that Sally, who did not witness Anne's action, will look in the basket, where she last saw it. In Baron-Cohen et al.'s study, 80% of the children with autism failed this test question (Tager-Flusberg 2006).

The inability to project oneself into the minds of others is a symptom, not a cause, of autism: "it is clear that autism emerges much earlier than age 4, when children are first able to pass these kinds of cognitive tasks," and some autistic children do pass theory-of-mind tests (Tager-Flusberg 2006). Because the inability to empathize may be linked to autistic difficulties in mimicking the behavior of others — including communication — mirroring therapy, in which the child is asked to mirror the expressions of others, is occasionally used to break autistic behavioral patterns and improve communication skills. Children with autism, even when they can produce language, have "significant limitations in the range of functions served by language; limitations that can be directly attributed to an impaired understanding of other minds" (Tager-Flusberg 2006). As one study notes, "Reliable differences in reflecting actions, social relatedness and positive affect towards themselves, and an absence of coy smiles differentiated the children with autism from the others... Mirror behavior may be a subtle but easily elicited measure of the social quality of a sense of self" (Engaging with the Self, 2011).

Conclusion: The Importance of Early Intervention

The spectrum-based nature of autistic disorders and the wide variety of communication skills and deficits exhibited by autistic children makes it difficult to generalize how to treat their language deficits. However, while the types of interventions prescribed may vary, early intervention is essential to ensure that autistic children gain a sense of appropriate ways of using the language they do possess in different social contexts, and to understand language as a means of generating social relationships and meanings.