title: Language and Speech in Autism.
abstract: Autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical social interaction, interests or body movements, and communication. Our review examines the empirical status of three communication phenomena believed to be unique to autism: pronoun reversal (using the pronounyouwhen the pronounIis intended, and vice versa), echolalia (repeating what someone has said), and a reduced or even reversed production-comprehension lag (a reduction or reversal of the well-established finding that speakers produce less sophisticated language than they can comprehend). Each of these three phenomena has been claimed to be unique to autism; therefore, each has been proposed to be diagnostic of autism, and each has been interpreted in autism-centric ways (psychoanalytic interpretations of pronoun reversal, behaviorist interpretations of echolalia, and clinical lore about the production-comprehension lag). However, as our review demonstrates, none of these three phenomena is in fact unique to autism; none can or should serve as diagnostic of autism, and all call into question unwarranted assumptions about autistic persons and their language development and use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.
authors.forename: Morton Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gernsbacher
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405.
authors.forename: Emily M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Morson
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education, National Louis University, Chicago, Illinois 60603.
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Grace
keywords: autism; behaviorism; echolalia; expressive language; language comprehension; language development; language production; pronoun reversal; psychoanalysis; receptive language