title: A Multidimensional Reappraisal of Language in Autism: Insights from a Discourse Analytic Study.
abstract: In this article, we leverage theoretical insights and methodological guidelines of discourse analytic scholarship to re-examine language phenomena typically associated with autism. Through empirical analysis of the verbal behavior of three children with autism, we engage the question of how prototypical features of autistic language-notably pronoun atypicality, pragmatic deficit, and echolalia-might conceal competencies and interactional processes that are largely invisible in mainstream research. Our findings offer a complex picture of children with autism in their use of language to communicate, interact and experience others. Such a picture also deepens our understanding of the interactional underpinnings of autistic children's speech. Finally, we describe how our findings offer fruitful suggestions for clinical intervention.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley, 5643 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1670, USA. sterponi@berkeley.edu.|Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. sterponi@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sterponi
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. kentondekirby@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Kenton
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: de Kirby
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D004454:Echolalia / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D066107:Social Skills; D014705:Verbal Behavior
keywords: Autism; Conversation analysis; Discourse analysis; Echolalia; Language; Pragmatic deficit; Pronoun reversal and avoidance