‘Autistic individuals always say what they think / or what they want to say’ There is a common misconception that autistic individuals...

Imitation as a Social Tool in Autism Though the broken mirror hypothesis  predicts that autistic individuals should show severe impairments in understanding and imitating actions, so far the research evidence is inconclusive and some research studies have found no such impairments (e.g., Beelen et al . 2018). In fact, many autistic individuals are excellent mimics, able to take another person’s way of speaking, moving, etc. (Tantam 2009). We can see ‘echolalic behaviours’ in

‘Autistic people don’t do metaphors’ Because of their literal interpretation, autistic children do experience difficulties in understanding figurative language. However, figurative language is a wide concept which means the use of words or phrases that deviate from their literal interpretation to achieve a more complex or powerful effect. It includes, for example: - s imile (a figure of speech that a simile compares  two similar things using ‘like’ or ‘as’): many autistic ch

After examining sensory perception in autism in the first book , the newly released second instalment focuses on communication and language in autism. Communication is a two-way process, and it takes two people to mess up a conversation. Not all the problems are caused by autistic children. Non-autistic people have a lot to learn about the ways autistic individuals use verbal and non-verbal language to communicate. Autistic children do not lack the desire to talk to others bu

There are other types of echolalia that are difficult to explain, for example, involuntary echolalia , when the person blurts out words...

Which is better for autistic individuals? Although sign language was first developed as a means of communication for the deaf, it has been also used to teach people with developmental disabilities communication skills. With autistic and other developmentally disabled children Makaton sign language is usually used. Sign language is introduced either as an augmentative system to facilitate the development of speech for those who understand verbal language but have problems wit