Biological basis of speech and

language
Presented to: Mam Fatima Asfar
Presented by : Bush Ayub
Aayet Nawaz khan
Amna rehman
Hijab Hashmi
Azra kumaili
Tania Qureshi
What is language and speech?

• The principal method of human communication, consisting of words

used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech,
writing, or gestures is called language.

• the expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by

articulate sounds is called speech.

• Number of languages spoken today: 7,139

Tamil (5000 years old) - Oldest Living
Language of the World

• 78 million people and official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Tamil is the oldest language in the world. It is the only ancient
language that has survived all the way to the modern world.
Sanskrit (5000 years old) - World's Oldest
Language
• Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world but fell out of common
usage around 600 B.C. It is now a liturgical language - the holy
languages found in the scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
According to studies, Sanskrit forms the base for many European
languages and is still one of India's official languages.
Egyptian (5000 years old)

• it is considered to be one of the oldest civilizations in the world

Written records of its usage date back to 3400 BC, making it an
ancient language. Coptic was the most widely spoken language in
Egypt till the late 17th century AD until it was replaced by Egyptian
Arabic, post-Muslim invasion.
Hebrew (3000 years old)

• Hebrew lost common usage around 400 CE and is now preserved as a

liturgical language for Jews across the world. With the rise of Zionism
in the 19th and 20th century, Hebrew underwent a revival age and
became the official language of Israel.
Greek (2900 years old)

• Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and was first
spoken in Greece and Asia Minor, which is now a part of Turkey.
Greek has an uninterrupted history of being used as a written language
for over 3,000 years, which is longer than any other Indo-European
languages spoken today. This history is divided into three stages,
Ancient Greek, Medieval Greek, and Modern Greek.
Origin and history of language
The concept of languages emerged about 10,000 years ago and it changed
the course of humanity.

It is the use of languages that led to the development of human race and
took us where we are today.

Though the origin of the first-ever language is highly debated throughout

the world,
Origin and history of language

Although the origin of language is hotly debated, many

scholars believe the first spoken language appeared in
sub-Saharan Africa at about the same time modern
humans emerged.
From there, humans and their language spread out into
Mesopotamia, where agriculture was the main way of
life.
Origin and history of language

Over the centuries, many theories have been put forward—and almost
all of them have been challenged, discounted, and ridiculed.

In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris banned any discussion of the

topic: "The Society will accept no communication concerning either
the origin of language or the creation of a universal language"
Theories of language emergence

The bow-wow theory

The tata-tata theory
Egyptian times
The tower of Babal
Aboriginal Tales
The bow-wow theory

• "Natural-sound source theory", that hypothesizes that primitive language

are imitations of the natural sounds which early human heard from around
them.

• For example, if an animal passed by a human and made a certain sound, the
human would try to imitate the sound that which the animal did.

• The theory fails to explain the presence of abstract words, such as love,
kindness, evil and etc.
The Ta-Ta theory
The overall essence of the Ta-ta theory is that spoken language
evolved through the mimicking of physical movements with
tongue and lip gestures.
Saying ta-ta, for example, is equivalent to waving goodbye with
your tongue.

However, most of the conversations we have in real life do not

involve distinctive movements connected with them.
Egyptian Times
The origins of spoken language can be traced back to
Egypt’s Twenty-sixth dynasty.

The earliest known human language experiment was

undertaken by Pharaoh Psammetichus I (The First).

Some of the oldest theories regarding language are known

as ‘Divine Source Theories’. According to these ideas, the
gods bestowed humans with the power to communicate.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.

The Tower of Babel

• ‘The Tower of Babel’ which explains the origins of the multiplicity of

languages.

• According to the Bible, God became enraged one day as mankind was
constructing the Tower of Babel, so he confused humans by giving them
various languages so that they couldn’t communicate with one another.

• God then spread these humans along with their new languages across the
world.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.

Aboriginal Tales
• There is also a detailed account of another emerging theory from
Aboriginal Australian tradition.

• It is said that an elderly woman named Wurruri died. As a result of her

death, many different tribes of people gathered to devour her carcass.

• Each tribe that came to the gathering spoke a different language after
consuming a different section of Wurruri’s body. And this is how dialects
in a language evolved.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
Behaviorist theory of language acquisition
Infants learn oral language from other human role models
through a process involving imitation, rewards, and practice.

Human role models in an infant's environment provide the

stimuli and rewards.

Skinner (1957) argued that language acquisition could be

explained by mechanisms of operant conditioning (OC).
Behaviorist theory of language acquisition

Positive and negative reinforcements play a vital role in language acquisition

OC is a technique that can be used to target and increase a behavior by pairing

performance of the target behavior with a positive or rewarding outcome
Example:

Parents making corrections when infants say some word wrong

Parents encourage infants when they say a word right

Noam Chomsky's theory of language
acquisition
language acquisition as a biologically determined process that uses
neural circuits in the brain which have evolved to contain linguistic
signals.
humans are born with an innate language ''device'' that enables
them to learn any human language (LAD).

Universal grammar is defined as ''the system of categories,

mechanisms and constraints shared by all human languages and
considered to be innate.''
Jerome Bruner (1961) believed that children are born with an ability to
develop language but they require regular interaction with their caregivers
or teachers to learn and understand it to a level of full fluency.
Bruner suggests a theory of learning based on self-discovery
 Jerome Bruner's theory of
• Bruner believed that CDS was adapted to make language more

Language
simple, accessible,Acquisition
and easy to understand

• A caregiver may also use child-directed speech (CDS), altering their

own use of language to make it easier for a child to conceptualize
language independently.

• Students acquire knowledge on their own. Of course, a tutor is always

present to guide the process and motivate each student’s curiosity.
This idea is known as the Language Acquisition Support System
(LASS).
Properties of language

• Arbitrariness

• Creativity

• Cultural Transmission

• Displacement

• Interpersonal
Arbitrariness
• Relationship between sound and meaning is arbitrary

• No natural connection between linguistics form and its meaning

• Example:

word CAT has no natural relationship with that animal

• Systematic sound-mappings in recent studies

 Creativity
• Language can be used to send messages we have never said or heard
before

• Creativity is unique to human language

• The recursive nature of language provides a potential to create an infinite

number of endless sentences

• Example

poetry,novels,
Cultural Transmission

• Language is transmitted culturally and it can be learned

• It is not a genetic element in humsans but animals call system are genetically
transmitted

• We acquire language from another speakers

Example

Overseas can speak different languages due to cultural interaction

Structure
of
Language
• A phonetics is the smallest unit of sound that may cause a change of
meaning within a language but that doesn't have meaning by itself.

• A morphology is the smallest unit of a word that provides a specific

meaning to a string of letters (which is called a phoneme).

• A lexicology is the set of all the inflected forms of a single word.

• Syntax is the set of rules by which a person constructs full sentences

• Context is how everything within language works together to convey a

particular meaning
Meanings of Words
Semantics
• Study of meaning in language is called semantics

• Interpret language including phrases,words, symbols etc.

• Word sementic appeared in 1894 from french Semantique “the psychology of

language”

• Applicable only on natural languages such as English,Farsi,French etc

• Linguistic sementics,computational,conceptual cross-cultural,lexical etc are

types of semantics
Meaning Theories

• Definitional Theory
• Prototype Theory
Definitional theory of meaning
• This theory was Presented by Richards and Ogden

• It States that words are organized in our mind as are in standard

dictionaries.

• The full meaning of each word is a set of features that are essential for
membership in the class named by the word.

Example

• A bachelor is composed of set of features as single,human,adult and male.

Prototype Theory of meaning
• Developed in 1977 by Eleanor rosch an
American Psychologist
• States that meaning of words or concept is
organized in the mind by a system of family
resemblance and common attributes
• Concept of central and peripheral members
Example
• Robin and ostrich both are included in birds
family however ostrich cannot fly, so robin is
a central and ostrich is a peripheral bird.
Biological Basis Of Language
Language In Brain
The brain is key to our existence our Brain Control series of
processes going ion in body. what we do know about the brain’s
command of six central functions: language, mood, memory,
vision, personality and motor skills and what happens when things
go wrong.
Characteristics of language
• Compositional
• Referential
Brain regions involved in language control
Following regions control language

• cerebrum

• Broca's area in frontal lobe

• Wernicke's area

• Arcuate fasciculus.

• Cerebellum

• Motor cortex
 Cerebrum
• Cerebrum, the largest and uppermost portion of
the brain. It consists of two
cerebral hemispheres.

• One hemisphere, usually the left, is functionally

dominant, controlling language and speech.

• Cerebral cortex is responsible

for integrating sensory impulses, directing motor
activity, and controlling
higher intellectual functions
Broca’s area

• Broca’s area is recognized as one of the main

language centers of the brain

• This region is associated with the production of

speech and written language

• It is linked with the processing and comprehension of

language.

• This area is located within the dominant hemisphere

of the frontal lobes

• Broca’s area is necessary to form and express

language
Wernicke’s area
• It process words and word sequences to
determine context and meaning

• Wernicke’s area region of the brain that

contains motor neurons involved in
the comprehension of speech

• This area appears to be uniquely

important for the comprehension of
speech sounds
Arcuate fasciculus

• The arcuate fasciculus is a bundle of axons

that connects the temporal cortex and
inferior parietal cortex to locations in the
frontal lobe

• One of the key roles of the arcuate

fasciculus is connecting Broca's and
Wernicke's areas,

• Damage to the arcuate fasciculus impairs

the transmission of information between
them
Cerebellum
• This brain structure is associated chiefly
with motor skills, visual-motor
coordination and balance

• cerebellum determines verbal fluency (both

semantic and formal) expressive and
receptive grammar processing

• It has the ability to identify and correct

language mistakes, and writing skills.
Motor cortex

• It is Located in the frontal lobe.

• To speak clearly, you must move the

muscles of your mouth, tongue, and
throat. Motor cortex controls them all.

• The motor cortex takes information from

Broca’s area and tells the muscles of your
face, mouth, tongue, lips, and throat how
to move to form speech.
Steps involved in talking
There are three steps involved in talking mechanism of speech

1. Detecting text

• Visual cortex

• Sensory cortex

• Auditory cortex
Steps involved in talking

2. Interpreting text

Angular gyrus

Insular cortex

Wernicke’s area

Broca’s area
Steps involved in talking

• Speech

Sound production in mouth

Stages of Development in children

• Preverbal communication in infant’s includes:

• Crying

• Cooing

• Babbling

• Holophrastic stage/One word stage

• Telegraphic stage/Two word stage

Crying
According to Oswald and Pelzman
“ Crying is the first way through which a
child can communicate to the world around
him”
Communicates his distress and discomfort from
crying
For example:
• Hunger
• Sick
Cooing
• This is the baby's first sound production besides crying
• Age range 2-4 months
• Produce soft vowel sound
• Begin to laugh
For example
• Happiness
Babbling
“Begins to combine those sounds repeatedly.”
• Age range 4-6 months
• Common constant: b/d/m
• Interesting thing to note:
• Languages from around the
world, even among those with no
common origins start with the
earliest sounds babies make.
For example ma,da,um
Deaf Babies
• Sign language
• “Babbling” with hands
Holophrastic stage
• The First Words Stage
• Age range 1 year
• One word at a time
• Complex ideas with single word
For example
• Child says milk I want milk
I spilled milk
Telegraphic Stage
• Stringing more than two words together
• 2+ years
• Last stage of language development
For example
• Child says “want milk’’ rather than “milk”
Language learning in different environments

It is well-known that the environment has a great influence on

language learning.

The right environment can make language learning fun, while the
wrong environment can make it frustrating.

The most important factor in the language learning environment is

the people.
Language learning in different environments

If the people around the learner are supportive and interested in

helping the learner, then the learner will make progress.

On the other hand, if the people around the learner are not supportive
or are not interested in helping the learner, then the learner will not make
progress.
Language learning in different environments

Another important factor in the language learning

environment is the level of difficulty of the language.
Language is influenced by a wide range of natural, cultural,
and social factors.
exposure to different languages can influence an individual’s
own language development.
Additionally, the physical environment can also affect
language acquisition and production.
Language learning in different environments

For instance, noise levels can impact how well someone is able to
hear and understand speech.

Finally, social factors such as the attitudes and beliefs of those

around an individual can also shape language development.

For example, if a community values bilingualism, its members are

more likely to become bilingual themselves.
Language learning in different environments
Thus far, our focus has been on language development as it proceeds normally.

Under these conditions, language seems to emerge in much the same way in
virtually all children.

The fact that language is so uniform and universal has led the psycholinguistics
to believe that we are biologically pre-programmed to learn language.

But what happens if you are brought up in a challenging or difficult environment

with uncertain conditions?
 • A feral child is a human child who has lived
away from human contact from a very young
age, and has little or no experience of
What is a human care, loving or social behavior, and,
feral child? crucially, of human language

• Feral children are confined by humans (often

parents), brought up by animals, or live in
the wild in isolation.
Case:1 Wild Children

• There were some remarkable examples of children who wandered (or

were abandoned) in forest and who survived, reared by bears or wolves.

• Roger Brown (1958). In 1920 some Indian villagers discovered a wolf

mother in her den together with four cubs. Two were baby wolves, but the
other two were human children, subsequently named Kamala and Amala.
No one knows how they got there and why the wolf adopted them.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

Case: 1 Wild Children
Brown tells us what these children were like:

Kamala was about 8 years old and Amala was 1 and a half year old.

They were thoroughly wolfish in appearance and behavior.

Hard callus had developed on their knees and palms and going on all fours.

Their teeth were sharped edged.

Case: 1 Wild Children
They moved with their nostrils sniffing food.

They ate raw meat and at night they prowled and sometimes
howled.
They shunned other children but followed cats and dogs.

They slept and rolled up together on floor.

Case: 1 Wild Children

• Amala died within a year but Kamala lived to be eighteen, learned to

walk erect, to wear clothing and even eventually to speak a few words.

• The outcome was much same for other thirty children or so. They also
seemed like wild animals and much inhuman.
Case: 2 Isolated Children (Isabelle)
Isabelle was born in 1932. She was an illegitimate child and was kept in
seclusion for this reason.

“Isabelle” was hidden away, apparently no one spoke to her from early
infancy and was given very minimal attention.

Isabelle was six years old when discovered.

As a result of lack of sunlight, fresh air, and proper nutrition, Isabelle had
developed a rachitic condition that made locomotion virtually impossible.
Case: 2 Isolated Children (Isabelle)

But, within a year, this girl learned

to speak. Her tested intelligence
Of course, she had no language
was normal and she took place in a
and her cognitive development was
school. Thus, Isabelle at seven
below that of a normal two-year-
years, with one year language
old.
practice spoke about as well as her
all peers in the second grade.
Case: 2 Isolated Children
(Genie)

• A child named “Genie”, discovered in California

about 20 years ago, was fourteen years old was
found.

• Since about 20 months, apparently, she had lived

tied to a chair, was frequently beaten and never
spoke to but sometimes barked at for her father
she was no more than a dog.
Case: 2 Isolated
Children (Genie)

• she was taught by psychologists

and linguists but Genie did not
become a normal language user.

• She says many words, and puts

them together into meaningful
prepositions as young children do
such as, “no more wax”, “another
house has dog” This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.
 Why did Genie not progress to full language
• The best guess is that the crucial factor is the age at which learning
learning while
language began. Genie Isabelle did?
was discovered after she had reached puberty
whereas, Isabelle was only 6. there is some reason to believe there is
critical period for learning language if that period passes language learning
proceeds with greater difficulty.
Language development in deaf people
The process of language acquisition is varied among deaf children.

Deaf children born to deaf parents are typically exposed to a sign language at
birth and their language acquisition following a typical developmental timeline.

However, at least 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who use a
spoken language at home.

It wasn’t until 1960 that linguists began to consider sign language a language
separate from spoken language
Braille language
Language development in deaf people

Many linguists believed that sign

language was a signed version of
the spoken language of whichever However, in the 1960’s linguists
country a deaf person lived in; for began to realize that sign language
example, linguists thought that has the same aspects that make
American Sign Language (ASL) spoken language a language.
was a signed version of English.
(Perlmutter, 1989).
Language development in deaf people

For instance, the English word

“right” has two different meanings.
For instance, sign language has its If sign language, in this case
own structure, grammar, and each American Sign Language (ASL),
sign has its own meanings that are was a gesture form of English then
independent from that of there would be one sign for “right”
spoken language. that is used to convey both of the
meanings for the spoken word
“right”.
What happens in the brain of deaf people?
(Biological basis):
• A postdoctoral research associate in the Brain Development Lab at the University
of Oregon, Eugene, and her colleagues, show that deaf people use the auditory
cortex to process touch stimuli and visual stimuli to a much greater degree than
occurs in hearing people.

• According to studies, the auditory cortex in deaf people changes their role. This
part of the brain becomes involved in the working memory.

• It is a mental workspace where humans store and update the information to

perform better in cognitive tasks.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.

What happens in the brain of deaf
people? (Biological basis):
• It has brought to light the ability of the brain to perform in a more complex
manner than we already know of.

• The reason for the study was to increase awareness about hearing loss and
deafness. This will also help guide and improve knowledge for people
undergoing a hearing loss.

• This research has proven that the brain can change the functions of certain
parts if need be.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
What happens in the brain of deaf
people? (Biological basis):
• Studies have shown that parts of the brain that are responsible for the
location and processing of sounds are involved in processing the location
and movement of visual objects in deaf people.

• The core function remains the same but instead of hearing it is done for
vision.

• The nerve cells of the brain process the information that reaches them as
electric signals and tells you about the location and movement.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
What happens in the brain of deaf
people? (Biological basis):
• It is astonishing what the human brain is capable of. It is often said
that a deaf person has excellent vision.

• There are several ways the finding may help deaf people. For example,
if touch and vision interact more in the deaf, touch could be used to
help deaf students learn math or reading.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.

Case of Helen Keller

• Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American
author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer.

• she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness at the age of 19
months.

• She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven,
when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan.
Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing.
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.
Case of Helen Keller

• By the time Helen Keller arrived at the Perkins Institution in 1888, she already
had begun a friendship with her teacher and tutor, "miracle worker" .

• Anne Sullivan, that would last for almost 50 years. Together, they shattered
society's expectations for what deaf, blind people can achieve.

• But when the young Helen first met Sullivan — Helen was only 6 at the time,
and Sullivan just 20 — nothing came easily. The student was a handful, often
physically attacking others, including her teacher.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

Case of Helen Keller

Her world was a dark and scary place.

"We know that, when things did not go Helen's way, she
would throw things, she would hit people," says Martha
Majors, the education director of the deafblind program
at the Perkins School for the Blind.
Soon, though, Helen and her teacher bonded. They
remain, today, the preeminent example for deafblind
learning and teaching.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

Case of Helen Keller
Sullivan began Helen's education using techniques practiced decades
earlier by Samuel Gridley Howe, the first director of the Boston-area
school.
Howe had famously taught English to a young deafblind girl, Laura
Bridgman, by labeling objects with raised letters, finally jumbling these
letters and having Bridgman rearrange them to spell the object's name.
Similarly, Sullivan "fingerspelled" Into Helen's hand the name of
separate objects.
Case of Helen Keller
• It wasn't until, famously, the teacher spelled "w-a-t-e-r" into Helen's
hand, while running water over her hand that the connection between
letters and words and objects was made, and the idea of language was
revealed. It was just weeks after Sullivan had arrived in Alabama.
From "The Story of My Life" by Keller
and Sullivan
• "I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every
object that I touched; and the more I handled things and learned their
names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship
with the rest of the world."

• Keller, too, learned to speak, though it was one of the great sadness of her
life that she was never able to speak as clearly as she would have liked.
Speech and language
Disorders
 Types Of speech and language Disorders

• Language and speech disorder are the

two distinct but interrelated types of
communication disorders.

• Language disorder/impairment involves

the processing of linguistic information ,
involving the semantics, pragmatics and
phonology.
• Language disorder are categorized as either receptive or expressive. A person with
receptive language disorder has difficulty understanding language. A person with
expressive language disorder has difficulty with using language.
What is Receptive Language Disorder ?
• Receptive language disorder is when one has difficulty
comprehending language.

• May not understand the orders given to them and face

difficulty in following orders.
What is Expressive Language Disorder ?
• Expressive language disorder is when one has difficulty conveying
information through speech and other forms of communication.

• It commonly encompasses having limited vocabulary, difficulty using words to

convey needs and wants.

• Features may include :

• Inability to start and hold a conversation

• Having difficulty recalling information

• Make grammatical mistakes, leaving off words or poor sentence structure.

Some Causes Of Language
Impairment
• Brain injury
• Genetic causes
• Autism
• Ear infection
• Environmental deprivation
What are speech delays or disorders ??

• It is a condition in which a person has problems creating the speech

sounds needed to communicate.
Common types of speech disorder:
• Stuttering
• Apraxia
• Dysarthria
 What is stuttering ??
Stuttering is a speech disorder that involves frequent and significant
problems with fluency of speech.

Signs And Symptoms

• Difficulty starting a word, phrase or sentence

• Prolonging a word or sounds within a word

• Repetition of a sound, syllable or word.

Causes
• Abnormalities in speech motor control
Treatment
• Treatment may not eliminate
all stuttering, but it can teach
skills that help to:

• Improve speech fluency

• Develop effective
communication
Apraxia of Speech
(AOS) is a speech disorder in which someone has trouble speaking. A person with AOS knows
what they’d like to say but has difficulty getting their lips, jaw, or tongue to move in the proper
way to say it.

Symptoms:
• Slower rate of speech, distortions of sounds

• long pauses between syllables.

Causes:
• Stroke, traumatic head injury

• tumor or surgical trauma.

• For both children and adults, the treatment for AOS involves speech-language therapy.
Dysarthria, a motor speech disorder

• It affects how the words are uttered; how

clear the sounds are articulated.

• Conditions that may cause dysarthria

include:

o Brain injury, stroke

o Parkinson’s disease

• Treatments for dysarthria commonly include

the voice exercises which help modulate
Language-Based Learning Disorders

Language based learning disorders commonly include

• Dyslexia

• Dysgraphia
What is Dyslexia ???
What are treatments for Dyslexia ???

There's no known way to correct the underlying brain differences

that cause dyslexia. However, early detection and evaluation to
determine specific needs and appropriate treatment can improve
success.

• Educational techniques

o Learn to recognize and use the smallest sounds that make up words

o Understand what is read (comprehension)

• What parents can do ?

o Address the problem early, read aloud with your child

Dysgraphia is defined as …
Learning disability that affects writing and makes it difficult for a
person to write by affecting the set of motor and information
processing skills.

Symptoms
• Incorrect spelling and capitalization, mix of cursive and print letters,
difficulty in copying words.

• Inappropriate sizing and spacing of letters

• Difficulty visualizing words before writing them

• Unusual body or hand position when writing

What treatments are available ?
Occupational therapy may be helpful in improving handwriting
skills. Therapeutic activities may include:

• holding a pencil or pen in a new way to make writing easier

• working with modeling clay

• tracing letters in shaving cream on a desk

• drawing lines within mazes

• doing connect-the-dots puzzles

There are also several writing programs that can help children and
adults form letters and sentences neatly on paper.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder ?
It refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills , repetitive

behaviors, speech and non verbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences.
There is not one but many t6ypes of autism based on genetic and environmental influences.

Facts about ASD

• Signs are usually apparent by age 3

• Boys >>girls, 4 to 1

Misconceptions:
• That people with ASD have special talent like rain man

• They don’t have emotions.

Deficits In Reciprocal Social Interaction:
Non-verbal difficulties
• Trouble looking in the eye
• Little gesturing while speaking
• Trouble knowing how close to stand next to someone
• Unusual intonation of voice
Failure in forming age related peer relations
• Little sharing of pleasures or interests
• Likes to play alone
• Do not call out to others

Lack of social or emotional reciprocity

• Does not respond to others, does not notice others when

Deficits In Communication
• Delay in or total lack of developmental language

• Difficulty holding language

• Unusual manner of talking

• Echolalia (is the repetition or echoing of words or sounds that you hear someone else
say)

• Repetitive behaviors, unusual insistence on sameness in environment.

Treatments For Autism:
Applied Behavior Analysis

• Positive reinforcement and shaping.

• A bit like dog training.

Medications

• SSRIs for anxiety and antipsychotics if they are

aggressive and self injurious.

• These treat symptoms not autism itself.

• They do not treat the social communication deficits.