I was just going through a few e-mails in a e-group for the children with Autism. Many parents want to know about speech therapy for their children in the Autistic Spectrum. Some even wanted to know as to why does their child not "communicate" irrespective of the fact that he sings advertisement jingles and other songs well. I would now want to highlight this issue and give a few points for parents.
It is very important, first and foremost that Language development precedes speech. Speech is just a manifestation of language. In other words, if the child has a healthy speech mechanism (no presence of any neurological deficit structurally) then he needs to have adequate language , in order to speak. TO make this point simple, Language is divided into 3 parts:
- Syntax-grammar. i.e constructing a sentence, word order.
- Semantics- meaning eg, idioms, proverbs etc.
- pragmatics i.e use of language (here, in social contexts.).
All the above 3 components go hand in hand. A child in the Autistic spectrum usually lacks in the Semantic and Pragmatic abilities predominantly. That is why he may not understand humour, wit or he may not be able to converse in a group and so on.
Speech-language therapy in these cases usually focuses on improving these skills in addition to the Language development via vocabulary building and sentence construction. A small tip for parents: Focus on involving your child in as many group activities as possible. Include him in your social activities like, shopping. Build up on area which interest him initially.
Do not obsess with "speech" at the
first instance. Remember no matter how much you try, as long as the child does
not develop language skills he will be unable to
"talk".
