Communication and Language Analysis: Autism Spectrum Disorder Report

This report examines the communication and language development of a 7-year-old boy, Tony, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The analysis begins with an observation of Tony's conversational style with a caregiver, focusing on initiation, appropriateness of responses, and the caregiver's communication approach. The report then delves into Tony's linguistic development, assessing his pragmatic, lexical/semantic, morphological, syntactic, and phonological skills. The pragmatic table reveals weaknesses in pragmatic functions, while the lexical table indicates a limited vocabulary. Tony's Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) is compared to age-appropriate norms, highlighting developmental delays. The report identifies areas for improvement, such as pragmatic, semantic, syntax, and morphological skills, and suggests intervention strategies, including involvement of a psychological expert and research-based school policies. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of tailored support for children with ASD to enhance their communication abilities.

Running Head: COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 1
Communication and Language
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation

COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 2
Introduction
Communication skills are essential, especially for young children. It enables them
to enhance a better understanding of someone talking to them, listen well, and use of
appropriate body language. Also, growth in communication skills also enhances good
relations of children with their peers, teachers, or guardians (Buckley, 2012). This paper
will, therefore, explore, a review, and reflect on the speech, communication skills, and
language of a 7-year-old with the autism spectrum disorder, Tony.
Conversational Style of Tony and his mother
The conversation is between a caregiver and a seven-year-old boy, Tony. The
caregiver is very jovial and starts the conversation by greeting the boy by saying “hi” in a
jovial tone. As the conversation proceeds, it takes the form, of question and answer, where
the caregiver questions the boy, and he answers. Like she asks the boy his name and the
child they are playing with next to him. The caregiver is making the conversation friendly
and jokingly by trying to guess what Tony wants and thinks. She asks Tony if he needs his
car back.
The caregiver is trying to know the feelings of tony by asking him very personal
questions. For example, after giving him the car back, she asks him what he says and feels
about having the toy. She also asks him if he wants to go back to school. The conversation
is also designed to measure the intellect of the boy; that is, the caregiver tries to know if
Tony is aware of the colors. She asks him the color of the camera she is holding, the car
and the shirt Dante is putting on. The caregiver is also trying to increase the self-esteem of
the boy, Tony by appreciating the correct answers he manages to give, for example, he

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managed to identify the color of the camera she was holding correctly. The caregiver is also
instructing the boy to see his response and correcting him otherwise.
 Who initiates the majority of the conversation?
The caregiver is the one who initiates the majority of the conversation.
 Is the response to the initiation appropriate? (i.e., Did the partner respond? Did they
respond appropriately? Look at the reactions of both the child and the caregiver)
Majority of the responses are not accurate because Tony seems to repeat most of the
questions he is asked instead of responding to the answers. For instance, when he is asked
if he wants his car back, he repeats the same. Also, when he was told to promise not to
throw away the car he was given, he repeated the same words. Tony was responding though
not responding appropriately. But Tony was mostly happening or not responding clearly to
the questions he was asked. The caregiver was, however, responding appropriately to the
questions/queries asked by Tony.
 What is the conversational style of the caregivers/communication partner? Were
they “tuned in” to the conversational abilities of the child?
The conversation style between the caregiver and Tony is a question and answer mode of
communication. The caregiver tries to inspect the intellect of Tony and his communication
abilities. The caregiver tries to identify the strength of the boy to express his feelings and
his attitude towards the daily experience a seven-year-old boy would pass through. For
example, she asks him if he would like to go back to school. The caregiver, therefore, tries
to come back to the level of the child to ensure that she understands him better. She asks
him if he would like to have the toy car and ask its color, which is one of the common
questions asked to a boy of the age.

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Communication and Language Development of Tony
Linguistics involves several aspects which are wholly related, although they are different
from each other. Communication analysis revolves around language and speech
capabilities. There are five common aspects of linguistics, which include phonology,
lexical/semantics, pragmatics, and morphology.
• What did you find from the Pragmatic Table? – Summarise your answer with an
example of pragmatic functions used.
The practical level of Tony is quite low. The signs, linguistics, actions, and sentences
construction of Tony are feeble in effect (Bishop, 2014). The table analyzed the pragmatic
capabilities of Tony in terms of imitation, protest (argue), giving information, answering
the question, request for action, asking for things and other joking activities. Tony did best
in the imitation, followed by his ability to answer questions while the rest were poorly
done.
• What did you find from the Lexical Table? Describe Tony’s lexical/semantic
development.
The vocabulary development of Tony is quite poor. He has a narrower meaning to some of
the words which in real sense should be given much attention by adults. According to the
table, Tony is generally reduced in nouns, family members, places, names of people, and so

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on. However, he is best in personal more social touch, where he can listen and respond to
the “hello, hi” and other questions and instructions he is asked.
• Tony’s MLU is around 3.03. Refer MLU to the table in the lecture to see if the
morphological development, is it age appropriate? 3.03 MLU is quite low for Tony; it is for
the children aging between 2 to 4 years.
Typically, a seven-year-old boy should have an MLU ranging between 4.0 and 5.22.
Therefore, the morphological development of Tony is not appropriate (Wong et al., 2010).
• Provide information on his syntactic development.
The Syntactic development or the language development of Tony is quite lagging. Often
children learn to pronounce words or make sentences in stages which are always in stages.
It usually begins from single word syllables to more complex sentences. Tony, on the other
hands, is finding it had to make some long sentences and makes some words which are not
coming out clearly as expected of his age.
• Provide info. On his phonological development- what speech sounds is Tony using?
Does he have difficulty with any of the speech sounds?
In the context of Tony synchronizing, the speech sounds to make clear communication is
quite a problem. He is using a soft speech sound, which is also not in completion and
requires close attention to understand what he is saying. Tony has difficulty in using
articles that supports the verbs he is describing hence require close attention to follow him,
better.

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Autism is considered as one of the child disorders which needs to be treated with care. Such
children often have a weak response to the five main communication areas such as
phonology, semantics /lexical, syntax, morphology, and pragmatics.
Intervention strategies
 Identify an area or areas of communication and language development, which
could be improved for Tony.
For Tony to effectively communicate and enhance his relationship with others, he must be
coached on how to use the speech sounds appropriate. For instance, he should be informed
to talk much louder, articulate the words more clearly, and use complete sentences to
ensure a full understanding of what he is saying.
 For example, you may want to focus on improving Tony’s pragmatic, semantic,
syntax, or morphological area.
To increase, Tony’s semantic, pragmatic, and morphological or syntax, more practical
speaking skills must be considered. For instance, he should be exposed to speak more to his
friends and observation data recorded for improvement.
 List two intervention strategies that you have learned from readings/literature to
assist with this. In a short paragraph, explain what each intervention/strategy is and
how the plan would be facilitated or implemented by the child's caregiver.
A psychological associate or expert can be Involve to better assists Tony in improving his
pragmatic, syntax, semantic, and morphological areas. An expert is necessary because
he/she understands better the condition of the boy and can make professional judgments on
the best mechanisms employed to help Tony (Koegel et al., 2012).

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Schools can also implement research-based policies to assist children with autism spectrum
disorder like Tony.
 Provide an example of the activity for this to demonstrate your understanding of
the intervention, which includes your justification for suggesting it.
An expert in psychology, for example, is well aware of the part of the brain which controls
the vocabulary and language development, hence can apply appropriate techniques to help
the boy develop the deficient skills.
Conclusion
Speech, communication skills, and language of young children often improve
gradually and is enhanced by their interaction with their friend, teachers and parents both at
home and in school (Peterson et al., 2010). Attention, listening, and understanding is
critical factors considered when improving communication skill. Children with autism
spectrum disorder like Tony need special care and consideration to help them develop their
communication skills.

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Reference
Bishop, D. V. (2014). Pragmatic language impairment: A correlate of SLI, a distinct subgroup, or
part of the autistic continuum?. In Speech and language impairments in children(pp. 113-
128). Psychology Press.
Buckley, B. (2012). Children's communication skills: from birth to five years. Routledge.
Koegel, L., Matos-Freden, R., Lang, R., & Koegel, R. (2012). Interventions for children with
autism spectrum disorders in inclusive school settings. Cognitive and Behavioral
Practice, 19(3), 401-412.
Peterson, N. R., Pisoni, D. B., & Miyamoto, R. T. (2010). Cochlear implants and spoken
language processing abilities: Review and assessment of the literature. Restorative
neurology and neuroscience, 28(2), 237-250.
Wong, A. M. Y., Klee, T., Stokes, S. F., Fletcher, P., & Leonard, L. B. (2010). Differentiating
Cantonese-speaking preschool children with and without SLI using MLU and lexical
diversity (D). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.