 | Researchers are still trying to pinpoint exactly how and when children begin to comprehend language around them, but it is thought that three are 3 important factors in development that are related to how well a child comprehends language. First one needs to be attentive to listen and perceiving spoken language (speech perception). Newborns are remarkable at attending to various sounds we use to make words. Children with autism then to pay less attention to speech. Which contributes to difficulties in language comprehension. Second one need to |
understand that language has meaning and is necessary to exchange ideas, convey emotions and maintain social relationships. This connection begins early on in infancy when infants share an interpret facial expressions with their parents and caregivers. Third one needs to understand symbols in our daily live. For e.g young children engage in symbolic play when they use a banana for a telephone or pretend that a doll is eating. Research shows that in comparison to children with developmental delays or typically developing children, children with autism do not engage in as much symbolic play, but most importantly this can be thought to a child with autism. Just guided down the right part and it becomes a spiral effect, where they start to do symbolic play for themselves.
Speech perception, construction of meaning in social situations and symbols formation are three components viewed as being important to development of language comprehension. Targeting these skills in intervention programs for very young children with autism can directly improve their comprehension of language. For very young children with autism there is often a focus on improving functional communication through non - symbolic means(e.g use of actual objects) and them=n moving more towards symbolic communication such as PECS communication.
