Pragmatic Speech and Autism
Autistic people can talk. More often than not, yet, individuals with autism talk 'uniquely' compared to their neurotypical peers. They might be direct to speak out their mind, but others think they are rude, socially "off." Their ability to read and understand social cues, gestures, culture, ethics, and expectations are limited. Those non-verbal social communication skills are in the category of pragmatic speech skills. It's essential to have the ability to observe the people behave in a different culture, to understand the social rule in a various social setting, make adjustments, and to be someone make sense of in communicating with others.
The Pragmatic Speech based on The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is three parts:
A. Utilizing language for various purposes, for example,
- Starting/ending a conversation with greetings (e.g., hi, how are you doing? Nice to meet you, goodbye)
- Informing (e.g., I will get some milk)
- Commanding (e.g., Give me that book!)
- Promising (e.g., I will buy you a pizza)
- Requesting (e.g., I want candy, please)
B. Changing language as indicated by the necessities of an audience or circumstance, for example:
- Talking distinctively to an infant than to a grown-up
- Provide a background story to engage a new audience
- Use formal/informal language in different setting/audiences
C. Keeping rules for successful communication, for example,
- Alternating taking turns in conversation
- Presenting topics of discussion
- Remaining on the topic
- Optimizing verbal and nonverbal signs
- Pay attention to facial expression, including eye contact
Below are challenges and patterns of autistic people shown in communicating with lack of pragmatic speech skills:
- Speak the truth bluntly, not considering the consequences
- Scripting favorite television shows, videos, and movies
- Speak with different intonation
- Become louder or quieter than is socially anticipated
- Rule the discussion and talk only about their interest topics
- Off-topic conversation
- Repeating the same things again and again
- Entering and leaving the conversation as they please
- Asking a question, state comments, and giving information voluntarily about sensitive issues for a specific group of people
- Challenging to understand jokes, idioms, or expressions.
- Inappropriate language use in a particular situation/crowd.
- Having difficulty to engage in unfamiliar topics/peers.
The speech therapist, social thinking therapist, and parents/caregivers can help autistic people teach and model appropriate language use through social stories or role-playing, or group therapy settings.