Communication in autism (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014)
Includes bibliographical references and index
An introduction to communication in autism -- Prelinguistic communication -- Facilitating emergent verbal repertoires in individuals with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disorders -- Echolalia and language development in children with autism -- Do autism spectrum disorders and specific language impairment have a shared aetiology? -- Prosody and autism -- Reading for sound and reading for meaning in autism -- Language and literacy subtypes in young children with a high functioning autism spectrum disorder -- The use of narrative in studying communication in Autism Spectrum Disorders -- Using conversational structure as an interactional resource -- Atypical cerebral lateralisation and language impairment in autism
Autism is among the most severe, prevalent and heritable of all neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the factors causing autism are still unclear. Language difficulties are at the core of autism, and any aetiological theory must incorporate a plausible explanation of this symptom. The development of cerebral lateralisation has long been theorised to be associated with language impairment. This chapter reviews the empirical evidence linking cerebral lateralisation and language impairment in both typical and atypical development, with a particular focus on the communication difficulties charac