Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Characteristics Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders Chapter Two
“The student may be using echolalic
utterances to rehearse what is heard in
order to process the information, or as a
strategy for self-regulation.”
B. Prizant & J. Duchan, (1981) “The
functions of immediate echolalia in autistic
children”, Journal of Speech and Hearing
Disorders, 46.
Quill, K.A. (1995) “Visually cued instruction
for children with Autism and pervasive
developmental disorders”, Focus on
Autistic Behaviour, 10 (3).
B. significant differences in oral language, for those who develop
language:
• odd pitch or intonation
• faster or slower rate than normal
• unusual rhythm, or stress
• monotone or lilting voice quality
C. repetitive and idiosyncratic speech patterns
D. echolalic speech; that is, immediate or delayed literal repetition
of the speech of others:
• appears to be non-meaningful, but may indicate an
attempt to communicate
• indicates the ability to produce speech and to imitate
• may serve a communicative or cognitive purpose
E. restricted vocabulary:
• dominated by nouns
• often confined to requests or rejections, to regulate one’s
physical environment
• limited in social functions
F. tendency to perseverate on a topic; that is, to continually
discuss one topic and have difficulty changing topics
G. difficulty with pragmatics of conversation:
• problems initiating the communication
• difficulty using nonverbal rules
• inability to maintain conversation on a topic
• inappropriate interrupting
• inflexibility in style of conversation, stereotypic style
of speaking
H. difficulty with language comprehension:
• comprehending verbal information
• following verbal instructions
• remembering a sequence of instructions
• comprehending abstract information
Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders 13