The effect of using ‘full’ language when working with a child with autism: Adopting the ‘least dangerous assumption’

Abstract

A 10-year-old boy with autism was part of an evaluation of an innovative intervention focused on improving communication skills. His school was using the minimal speech approach (Potter and Whittaker, 2001) with all children in accordance with government guidance. The pupil’s receptive language had not been formally assessed due to his lack of cooperation in tests and his perceived low ability. Informal assessment indicated that the pupil had restricted receptive language and school targets included understanding of basic verbs. Researchers adopted the use of ‘full’ language and stimuli including written words to engage the child and to investigate motivation and competence. Post intervention the boy demonstrated better understanding of complex language and literacy skills than previously expected. Blanket adoption of the minimal speech approach and the low expectations of staff may lead to children’s abilities being underestimated.

Transforming engagement: a case study of building intrinsic motivation in a child with autism

“…Literacy is promoted as part of the approach since it offers greater opportunities for expression. This builds on previous empirical evidence of the use of this approach to raise the expectations (Emerson & Dearden, 2013b) of educators in a case study that discovered that a child had unexpected reading abilities which he used to extend his communication. This article mainly focuses on the Reasons aspect of the MORE model, and in particular the need to focus on developing the intrinsic motivation of the student.…”

“…Adults persisted in talking about materials even when Hannah was not looking and was making loud vocalisations. The intention was to demonstrate an expectation that she could listen and join in when she was ready.High expectations were also demonstrated by the use of full language (Emerson & Dearden, 2013b) to describe materials and activities, since it was not possible to assess how much Hannah was able to understand. The full language approach involves using age-appropriate language with slightly enhanced intonation patterns to promote interest and curiosity.…”

Accommodating to motor difficulties and communication impairments in people with autism: the MORE intervention model

“…When working on independent communication progress tends to be slow. In the case study described above (Emerson and Dearden, 2013) Jack made considerable progress in the first 4 months, as he demonstrated within that time that he could point to pictures and to words in answer to questions. More typically people make slower progress, and part of the philosophy of high expectations is to continue with intervention despite the absence of response.…”

“…Difficulties in the realm of executive function (Grayson, 1997) or other motor difficulties (Leary and Hill, 1996) may prevent demonstration of ability. A case study of Jack (Emerson and Dearden, 2013) is a good example of this. Ten year old Jack had very limited communication despite years of education and provision of AAC means such as signs and symbols.…”

“…This was then gradually increased to a larger number of missing pieces. In another example (Emerson and Dearden, 2013), in order to assess Jack's understanding of a story he had been read he was given speech bubbles with phrases relating to what particular characters had said. For example “you look silly” written in a speech bubble, required a point to a picture of the person in the story who said this.…”