Spontaneous Communication and Autism Spectrum Disorder

The lack of spontaneous communicative initiations—and by these initiations I mean what I can describe as the process of self-initiating

direct and spontaneous communication without the presence of prompting or instigation—is considered a difficult problem for people

with autism spectrum disorder. Approximately between 21% and 66% of children with this disorder remain

behind walls of silence, having no ability to speak without therapeutic intervention. Individuals

diagnosed with autism rarely initiate appropriate speech, and often fail to ask questions, request information,

or even express their feelings or prompt others to communicate with them. Before we begin listing the possible methods

that can be used to stimulate our loved ones and little ones to speak, let us learn what is meant by spontaneous communicative initiations.

Do you remember how many times your child asked to drink water before you offered it to them? Do you remember how many times

your daughter asked for a new toy similar to her friend's toy? This is exactly what I mean by spontaneous communicative initiations.

Those communicative behaviors that occur spontaneously in the absence of prompting or stimulation for them. As we mentioned

at the beginning, people with autism spectrum disorder lack spontaneous communicative ability, as they rely

almost entirely on what we prompt them to say or express.

Here I would like to note what Chiang (2009) pointed out, which is the quantitative and essential difference between spontaneous communication and

prompted communication, and what I mean by prompted is the opposite of spontaneous communication. One statistic tells us that between 14–20%

of nine-year-old children with autism do not speak. Therefore, to help these children, we must intervene

early and intensively to develop their capacity for linguistic communication satisfactorily.

Well, what are the intervention methods?

I would like to draw your attention to what are called augmentative and alternative strategies. These strategies are divided into

two categories: a category that uses communication via hand gestures, and a category that relies on some tools such as printed pictures

or tablet devices. Both categories share the same goal, which is compensating for the linguistic deficit occurring in some

children and with some people who face problems with linguistic communication, or as the translation of

the English term indicates, language disorders. Some research has indicated that the use of such strategies may

contribute to the success of the communicative process and may also contribute to and coincide with language development in these children/individuals.

One of these augmentative and alternative strategies operates according to the Picture Exchange Communication System, known as "PECS". This system is considered

very effective and promising with children/individuals who face language disorders. First, the PECS system does not require

complex signing skills. Second, this system promotes teaching requesting skills easily. The

importance here lies in the fact that learning the requesting skill in itself is sufficient to encourage the child and prompt them toward linguistic communication.

In addition to all of this, this system aims for spontaneity, and as we mentioned previously, we are trying to bring autistic children out

of the shell of silence and train them to initiate linguistic communication; thus, the PECS system achieves this

communication for us by training them to select the picture representing what they want to say and placing it in our hands. Due to its simplicity

and lack of complexity, the PECS system is considered one of the programs that are flexible to use across various settings, whether at home,

school, or even in public places such as parks and others.

A researcher found that a lot of research indicates the effectiveness and benefit of the PECS system. Since the early nineties,

this system has been proving its competence and ability to teach children and prompt them to speak. One statistic indicates cases

only that did not benefit from this system out of 173 cases.

Here I would like to point to a hypothesis called the symbolic hypothesis. This symbolic hypothesis concerns the relationship between

the symbol/picture and what it denotes. Specifically, this theory tells us that there is a direct relationship between the symbol and how much it resembles

what it symbolizes, and the child's ability to use this symbol and remember it. In other words, the more the symbol or the more

the picture resembles what it denotes in reality, the more easily the child is able to link its use.

There are also other strategies that rely on sound, such that the child is able to press some of

the voice-output symbols and pictures on a tablet device like the iPad. There are studies conducted over five years on 58

autistic children who used such tablet-based voice strategies. The results of these studies revealed

truly impressive percentages. About 53% of children who used such voice applications achieved

outstanding success, and about 33% succeeded to varying degrees.

This success indicates the effectiveness of these strategies and their contribution to helping children and individuals

who experience language disorders.

So, have you thought now about designing a small booklet or an easy-to-carry

picture ring containing some pictures of your child's items and what they might need to help your child

communicate?

Main source: Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 5 (2011) 977–983

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.