One of the greatest challenges a person with autism and his or her family faces is communication. Autism impairs a person’s ability to communicate and relate to others. 

Communication is the exchange of thoughts or ideas from one person to another. Effective communication includes receptive language, expressive language, and pragmatic language.

Receptive language is understanding written or spoken messages. Expressive language is language that delivers a message with words, writing or gestures. Pragmatic language is the use of the rules of language in social situations, such as making appropriate eye contact, greeting people, taking turns speaking, or switching topics of conversation.

Communication Symptoms of Autism

A child with autism can appear to live life in his or her own world, show little interest in others, and exhibit a lack of social awareness. Often children with autism can have different ways of learning, paying attention, and reacting to things.

The following are the most common communication symptoms associated with autism. Each child may exhibit symptoms differently and the symptoms can range from mild to severe.

• Experiences difficulty in developing language
• Repeats or echoes words or phrases
• Has a hard time expressing needs or wants
• Does not point at objects to show interest
• Has trouble understanding other people’s feelings or talking about his or her own feelings
• May lose skills they once had (for example, stops saying words they were once using)

Learn about visual cues that can help autistic children communicate.

Pragmatic Challenges

In addition to communicating ideas and thoughts, autistic children often have difficulty using language in social situations. The child may exhibit this difficulty in a number of ways, including:

• Avoids eye contact
• Prefers to play alone
• Has trouble interacting with other children or making friends

Learn more about pragmatic language challenges.

Appointments for Autism-Related Speech Problems

Appointment types can vary and your speech pathologist and referring doctor can help you find the right intervention for your situation. Services range from a full evaluation with the goal of starting a therapy plan to a one-time consultation visit that provides additional information to the services your child already receives.

All appointments at Duke include the following:

• Services are individualized and activities or items are changed to fit each child’s individual needs and interests.
• The speech-language pathologist provides hands-on coaching for the family to help their child use techniques modeled during each session at home and school.
• The child and family may participate in both the assessment and therapy sessions while learning through structured activities, tasks, or play.
• We understand information relating to communication and autism can be overwhelming. Therefore, we offer strategies and communicate with family about different ways to help make intervention ideas practical, realistic, and doable.

Why is this appointment important?

Communication is a vital part of life. Finding a successful way for a child to be understood and express themselves can improve family and social interactions, facilitate learning in school, reduce frustration with miscommunications, and provide an overall enhanced quality of life.

To schedule an evaluation, contact Duke Speech Pathology and Audiology at 919-684-3859, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.