AUTISM
A condition characterised by a withdrawal from linguistic interaction with others. The sufferer is often mute or uses language in a non communicative way. The symptoms of autism appear between the ages of one and three, and are sometimes misdiagnosed as deafness. They include delayed cognitive and linguistic development and a reduced ability to react to people, events and objects. Autistic children tend to have exceptionally low IQs but they may excel in one or two isolated skills such as painting or music. The syndrome is much more common in males than in females and appears to be caused by a physical dysfunction of the brain.
It was once suggested that the child’s mutism represents a deliberate withholding of language or possibly a dislike of human speech; but it may be part of a general difficulty with all forms of communication. Some children remain mute until the age of five and beyond. With others, the mutism gives way to a delayed acquisition of speech. Here, pronunciation of phonemes will generally be unimpaired, though rhythm and intonation may be flat and monotonous. Other aspects of language, including the processing of meaning, may deviate from normal patterns– perhaps partly because of an inability to make links between world knowledge and linguistic experience.
An important symptom of autism is echolalia, where the child meaninglessly repeats what has been said to it. It was once believed that echolalia indicated a rejection of interaction. Now, it is sometimes interpreted as evidence that the autistic child does not succeed in grasping the true function of language. Delayed echolalia, where the child repeats an earlier string of words out of context, appears sometimes to have a communicative intent.
Other symptoms are an unwillingness to meet the gaze of a speaker and difficulties with the use of pronouns. One interpretation is that autistic children find it hard to develop an awareness of the separate viewpoint of others (a theory of mind). Even where sufferers from autism go on to achieve a relatively normal use of language, they may experience problems with pragmatics.
See also: Disorder, Echolalia, Modularity1, Theory of mind
Further reading: Baron-Cohen et al. (1985); Fay (1993)
