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A Comparison of Language Issues in High-Functioning Autism and Related Disorders with Onset in Childhood and Adolescence

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High-Functioning Individuals with Autism

Part of the book series: Current Issues in Autism ((CIAM))

Abstract

Speech, language, and communication in autism present a heterogeneous and complex picture that has fascinated clinicians and researchers since Kanner’s (1943) original description of the syndrome. Deficits in these areas have been studied from the perspectives of normal language development, their relationship to cognition, and more recently, their relationship to socialization and affect (Baron-Cohen, 1988, 1989a; Hobson, 1986; Sigman, Mundy, Sherman & Ungerer, 1986). Important variables in these studies have included IQ, age, language acquisition history, and age of onset, as well as remedial and pharmacological intervention. While language function can vary considerably based on these variables, communication behaviors in autism appear to remain flawed in specific ways and constitute an essential aspect of the total diagnostic picture. Foremost are impairments in pragmatics, or the use of language in a social context. Fillmore (1981) characterized the are of pragmatics from a structural-functional perspective as “a three-termed relationship that unites (a) linguistic form and (b) the communicative functions that these forms are capable of serving, with (c) the contexts or settings in which those linguistic forms can have those communicative functions” (p. 144). Recent reviews of pragmatic deficits in autism are provided by Watson (1988) and Baron-Cohen (1988).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Christiane A. M. Baltaxe & James Q. Simmons III

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  1. Christiane A. M. Baltaxe
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  2. James Q. Simmons III
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division TEACCH, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Eric Schopler  & Gary B. Mesibov  & 

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Baltaxe, C.A.M., Simmons, J.Q. (1992). A Comparison of Language Issues in High-Functioning Autism and Related Disorders with Onset in Childhood and Adolescence. In: Schopler, E., Mesibov, G.B. (eds) High-Functioning Individuals with Autism. Current Issues in Autism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2456-8_11

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