Linguistic oddities such as interrupting or not focusing on a conversation they find boring. Emotional overload frequently occurs, especially when feelings such as anger or pain are involved. Inability to keep calm if a routine is changed suddenly. Fixation on one or two subjects, with the exclusion of all others.
excessive repetitions of phrases, revisions of ideas, filler words such as “um” or “uh” excessive over-coarticulation. Sounds in words run together and sounds or syllables may be deleted. For example, “It's like this” may sound like, “slikethi.”
Echolalia (repeating others' words or sentences) and late onset of first words are some of the better known communication challenges associated with autism, but lesser known difficulties like abnormal prosody, idiosyncratic speech, and cluttering may also impact speech.
Clinical reports have variously referred to the speech of individuals with ASD as “monotone”, “robotic”, “staccato”, “jerky”, and “sing-songy” and inconsistent prosody has been described as among the first identifiable characteristics that can create an impression of “oddness” among children with ASD.
Stilted speech, along with atypical intonation, semantic drift, terseness, and perseveration, are all known deficits with adolescents on the autistic spectrum. Often, stilted speech found in children with ASD will also be especially stereotypic or in some cases even rehearsed.
People with autism often speak with a different rhythm, prosody, and/or volume than typical peers. Thus, even if the words themselves are appropriate, they may sound flat, loud, soft, or otherwise different. It's not unusual for people with autism to "script" their conversations.
One of the most common is monotonous speech. This means that they may speak in a flat, monotone voice. They may also use the same pitch and inflection regardless of the situation. Another common speech pattern in toddlers with Asperger's is stilted speech.
Aspergers speech patterns often seem odd to people who don't know them. Tone, intonation and volume are often restricted, seemingly inappropriate, or at appear at odds with what is being said. Children with Aspergers also have difficulty interpreting and displaying non-verbal communication.
Autistic deficits cluster into three groups: communication-related, social and physical deficits. Communication deficits include people with autism's difficulty using spoken language and gestures, inability to initiate and sustain appropriate conversation and use of inappropriate, repetitive language.
Stilted speech: odd language use that may be excessively formal, pompous, outdated, or quaint. Self-reference: The patient is liable to refer the subject of conversation back to him/herself.
Some children may have problems with auditory processing, the system by which their brains interpret the words that they hear. Others may struggle with the motor skills needed to form words. For example, speech apraxia affects people's ability to plan and coordinate the mouth and tongue movements used to talk.
Use of few action words (verbs) Trouble understanding simple language. Limited vocalizations with few consonants. Reduced or absent imitation.
Some of the frequent facial features of autism are a broader upper face, shorter middle face, wider eyes, bigger mouth, and the philtrum [19]. The use of facial features as a physical marker to detect autism is one of the most exciting topics in autism research.
Linguistic oddities such as interrupting or not focusing on a conversation they find boring. Emotional overload frequently occurs, especially when feelings such as anger or pain are involved. Inability to keep calm if a routine is changed suddenly. Fixation on one or two subjects, with the exclusion of all others.
Children with autism display many abnormal behaviors that, while not essential to the diagnosis, cause serious distress for both the child and the family. Unusual eating habits, abnormal sleep patterns, temper tantrums, and aggression to self and to others are among the most common of these abnormal behaviors.
The verbal oddity test shows whether the subject can understand several concepts at once. It also indicates whether he can form his own concept, or hypothesis, and use it in finding the odd item. Experiments indicate that people can often solve oddity problems even when they cannot give adequate definitions.
First, people with autism often use speech in idiosyncratic ways. They may recite lines from a movie, talk endlessly about a favorite topic, or ask questions to which they already know the answer. Second, speech is just one part of social communication and, in many cases, spoken language isn't enough.
Describing trousers as "leg sleeves" or feathers as "bird leaves" and milk as "cereal water" are also examples of idiosyncratic speech.
These unusual speech patterns include: Echolalia - the repetition of words or phrases previously heard. Atonality - monotone, robotic or song-like speech. Expressive/receptive language delays - lack of appropriateness in the speaking to others or lack of understanding when others are speaking.
oddities in loudness, pitch, intonation, prosody, and rhythm. unusually pedantic, formal or idiosyncratic speech. use of metaphor meaningful only to the speaker. verbosity.
One particularly rich indicator of social differences in autism is the voice. Children with autism often sound different from other people. Some may speak in a flat, monotone voice; others may use unusual modulation or stress different words or parts of words in their speech; and some may speak at an increased volume.
“High-functioning autism” isn't an official medical term or diagnosis. It's an informal one some people use when they talk about people with an autism spectrum disorder who can speak, read, write, and handle basic life skills like eating and getting dressed. They can live independently.
Some people with Asperger's speak in a formal manner and with less voice inflection. They may speak loudly or go on tangents during conversations and may have one-sided conversations and difficulty detecting changes in the topic.
Many individuals on the autism spectrum have a “flat affect” or reduced facial display. “Flat affect” is a term used to describe a lack of emotional reactivity or expressivity. With a flat affect, expressive gestures are minimal, and there is little animation in facial expression or vocal inflection.