978-1572305441

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William 85
would be very difficult for William’s teachers to cope with and how he
would be made fun of by his classmates.
William’s speech lacks many of the linguistic devices we use to
build a conversation. He often will not answer my requests for clarification.
He will not repair the conversation when it apparently breaks
down. I’m sure he’s not even aware that it has broken down. He has
little awareness that I need help in following the sense of the conversation.
He makes ambiguous references that could refer to several different
things or different people but without clarifying the context: What
color is he talking about? What shapes? Who was three years old? The
topic of the conversation is also not what one might expect. Much of
the conversation of typical children involves reference to the social
world: Whom did you see yesterday? What was he doing there? In typical
conversation, the references are to other people who share the linguistic
space of the speaker and the listener. Instead, William refers to
the physical world (shapes and colors) with only passing reference to
people. He perseverates on trains and returns again and again to the colors,
the shapes, and the time of the trains’ arrival and their direction, as
if I require this information rather than the context of the story. I do not
need all these details; I need an overall message.
As it so often does when trying to engage in conversation with a
child or an adult with ASD, the sense of it all eludes me. I am immersed
in detail, swimming in a whirl of sensations. These familiar words begin
to sound strangely unfamiliar. Soon the meaning of individual words
starts to slip away. Without an easily identifiable reference, I listen more
and more to the sounds and the rhythm of the speech. The constant
repetition serves to make the familiar extraordinary.
As I struggle to understand, I can’t help wondering if this is the way
William feels when listening to other people talk. Does he feel shut out
of the conversation, unable to locate meaning in the social use of language?
I doubt it, as he shows no distress at my incomprehension and
little awareness of my difficulties. No doubt he lacks the insight that
Sharon had in her conversations with other people. But William must
need to communicate and must enjoy it at some level. Otherwise, why
does he tell me all about the subway stations? Most often when children
with autism speak it is to ask for something they want, like food, a favorite
video, or access to their current interest or preoccupation. Sometimes
they will talk about their interests at length, presumably to share
that interest with another person. That spark of wanting to share becomes
the key to intervention (discussed later in this chapter), but to