Language is the process of communication used to interconnect with others through the use of words. These interconnections can be conveyed through speaking, writing and even signing (Merriam-Webster, 2017). There are hundreds of languages used around the world, and millions of people who use them. There are however, many obstacles to overcome through the learning of language, and some individuals may have more difficulty learning and understanding than others. For example, children with autism spectrum disorder prove this to be true. The development of language is the fundamental process in communication with others individuals with autism often have impairments with language.

Children with autism develop, in general, extremely differently than other children and in a much slower process. In addition to this, they also may develop certain abilities at different times in their life than children without this disorder. Lazenby, Sideridis, Huntington, Prante, Dale….and Flusberg (2015) performed a study based on infants who were at high risk (HR) or low risk (LR) for later developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The researchers examined whether their differences in language could be detected at the age of twelve months. In this study it is mentioned that “ASD affects 1 in 68 children and the recurrence risk in later-born siblings of children with ASD is close to 1 in 5” (Lazenby et al. 2015). The goal of the study was to examine whether language development gradually decreases after twelve months or is existent from the very beginning of a child’s life. The participants’ parents were presented with vocabulary words and reported whether their child was able to produce or understand these words and this data was recorded. The conclusion of this study finds that the children at high risk for ASD were more likely to produce and comprehend certain words, which came as a surprise to Lazenby and colleagues (2015). These results were unexpected, as the hypothesis predicted the low risk children would instead be able to do this. However, in conjunction with this study and the development of language in children with autism, there is evidence that early intervention is the best option in order to test children who may be at high or even low risk of ASD.

It is evident that intervening as early as possible when you suspect a child may have autism spectrum disorder is the prime option for effective treatment. It is highly suggested in order to help improve one’s quality and quantity of language. Detection of this disorder was tested in a study done by Anthony Goodwin, Nicole L. Matthews and Christopher J. Smith. The study focused on autistic children who had no language delay, as well as those who did have a language delay. The study compared these two types of children in school ranging from ages five to eighteen years. The main goal was to test whether language milestones were the most telling for predicting children with autism after their toddler years (Goodwin, Matthews & Smith, 2017). The factors this was tested against were participants’ IQ scores, social cues leading to the diagnosis of autism and the age at which the children were diagnosed. These factors were all tested through the children’s adaptive functioning throughout their time in school. Goodwin and colleagues (2017) believed that the observation of adaptive functioning is fundamental for this study because it incorporates children’s ability to function within their community and complete tasks in their everyday life. This study points out that those with autism spectrum disorder typically have decreased adaptive functioning than those without it. The authors of this study indicate that “this gap increases with age, as people with ASD develop adaptive skills at a slower rate…than would be expected based on their cognitive level” (Goodwin et. al. 2017).

The results by Goodwin and colleagues (2017) show that language milestones are a predictor of outcomes later in an autistic child’s life, but did not in fact prove to be the greatest interpreter of adaptive functioning within one’s school years. In addition, if parents are not encouraged to test their child for autism based on visible delays in language development, the disorder could possibly go unnoticed until more prominent challenges become apparent further down the road. The results show that it is not beneficial to just focus on one characteristic of a child’s developmental capability, but keeping in mind all factors that make up one’s potential in their adaptive functioning. Goodwin, Matthews and Smith (2017) mention that measuring a child’s social and cognitive functioning should be included.

As mentioned previously, high-risk children for autism spectrum disorder are important to consider when discussing the topic of autism itself. Often, these high-risk children are the younger siblings of those diagnosed with autism. Researchers performed a study focused on the measurements of eye tracking when processing receptive language, which is one’s ability to process information (Chits-Tegmark, Arunachalam, Nelson & Tager-Flusberg, 2015). The children who participated in the study were separated into two different groups, high risk for autism spectrum disorder and low risk. Within those groups, the participants were split up again into 3 age groups of 18, 24 and 36 months. The eye-gazing task was online and the children were presented with different photographs of vocabulary words, some being easy for the child to recognize and others being difficult (Chits-Tegmark et al, 2015). The simpler words were based on the idea that children of these ages would generally be familiar with these words depending on the rate of their development of receptive language. Chits-Tegmark and colleagues (2015) found results that prove there are differences in language for children at high risk for autism as well as similarities. The results show that “the high risk for ASD and low risk control groups were similar in their language processing as shown by the reaction time measure: Chits-Tegmark et al. 2015). The researchers did, however, find that there was a substantial decline in accuracy with high-risk children at 36 months. In other words, these specific participants understood several fewer words at this age than the other two ages tested for receptive language. Chits-Tegmark and colleagues (2015) prove to be one of the many studies that are relevant to the topic of language development in children with ASD. It is important, when researching an important topic such as this, to understand that there are many different ways in which these language barriers, as a result of having autism spectrum disorder, can be determined or further verified.

A particular form of every day functioning that can be an indicator of such language barriers, possibly resulting in autism spectrum disorder, is the act of gesturing. Gesturing is a significant aid in communication and with the delay of this comes a delay in the evolvement of language. Within this topic, it is important to understand and acknowledge that those with autism spectrum disorder are affected when it comes to gesturing. Gesturing can affect those living in an environment with a child with autism as well. A research report was done in light of this notion, titled “Gesture development in toddlers with an older sibling with autism” by Eve Sauer LeBarton and Jana M. Iverson. This report was done at the University of Pittsburgh and aimed to observe the development of gesture between children with autism, no diagnosis of this disorder and language delay, in relation to age. In other words, the participants included children with a heightened risk (HR). This involves children younger siblings who were born after a child with ASD. These HR participants also included children with learning disabilities and those with no diagnosis. The experiment consisted of observations of HR children between the ages of five months to 36 months, in their natural environment at home, playing within their environment with their guardians and standardized assessments. The experimenters of this study focused on the gestures the children made, which was “any communicative hand movement that did not involve manipulation of objects (e.g., twisting a jar open) or a ritualized game (e.g., patty cake) was considered a gesture” (LeBarton & Iverson, 2016). This process of observation is called coding.

The results of this study ultimately showed that there were in fact differences in between the groups of HR children in their communication using gestures. The toddlers with autism formed fewer gestures than HR children. Also, LeBarton and Iverson found that language delay children and autistic children followed a similar pattern of one of the many gestures observed during this study, which was a decrease in pointing, versus the children with no diagnosis (2016). These results suggest “there are both similarities and differences in gesture use across a variety of populations exhibiting atypical development and comparison with children in our HR subgroups” (LeBarton & Iverson, 2016). This study allowed us readers to comprehend that there is a possibility of influence in the development of language on children who are raised in the same environment of a child with ASD.

Including gesturing, deficits across all aspects of communication are part of the struggle those with autism spectrum disorder have in the development of language. Olaff, Ona and Holth (2017) discussed a specific characteristic of communication those with ASD struggle with; the ability of naming. Naming can include the identifying of objects, people, and even the process of learning new vocabulary words. This includes the process of understanding what these words, often verbs or nouns mean, and often what they look like. It is evident that communication includes efforts from both the speaker and listener, and naming falls within this category as well. Both the speaker and listener of the conversation being taken place, both need to put in efforts to be able to understand each other and ultimately be on the same page. Naming comes into play more than those would think, as we use this process in our every day lives, sometimes not even realizing it. Olaff and colleagues (2017) highlight the idea that children with autism spectrum disorder struggle with naming and hypothesize in this study that training those with ASD with naming can be extremely effective and help with their communication in the future. The three participants within this study, preschool children diagnosed with autism, were presented with images of different categories such as animals, flowers, birds etc. They were asked distinctive questions about these images in multiple trials. Overall, the results indicate that the participants showed improvement in their naming skills through training in their responses as each trial progressed (Olaff et al. 2017). This experiment allows us learners and readers to come to the conclusion that it is imperative to recognize there are different components that are affected by those who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; just one of them being the ability of naming.

Over the course of my research about autism spectrum disorder and the development of language in children, I have come across several pieces of evidence to ultimately convey how much ASD truly alters the process of learning a language. Autism spectrum disorder is such a universal disorder and its prevalence is increasing as time goes on. Therefore, becoming knowledgeable about its effects on language and about the disorder in general is necessary. Language is our main source of communication and is a part of our everyday lives, thus learning about a topic with such relevance within language is valuable and useful in further understanding it.

References

Chita-Tegmark, M., Arunachalam, S., Nelson, C. A., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2015). Eye-tracking measurements of language processing: Developmental differences in children at high risk for ASD. Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders, 45(10), 3327-3338. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2495-5

Goodwin, A., Matthews, N. L., & Smith, C. J. (2017). The effects of early language on age at diagnosis and functioning at school age in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders, 47(7), 2176-2188. doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3133-1

Language. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/language

Lazenby, D. C., Sideridis, G. D., Huntington, N., Prante, M., Dale, P. S., Curtin, S., & … Tager-Flusberg, H. (2016). Language differences at 12 months in infants who develop autism spectrum disorder. Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders, 46(3), 899-909. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2632-1

LeBarton, E. S., & Iverson, J. M. (2016). Gesture development in toddlers with an older sibling with autism. International Journal Of Language & Communication Disorders, 51(1), 18-30. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12180