Communication occurs when one person sends a message to another person, through words, gestures, and facial expressions. Communication occurs when two people, for example an adult and a child, respond to each other - this is two-way communication.
The desire to communicate is inextricably linked with the development of social relations, in which children with autism experience significant difficulties. In order to teach such an important skill, it is necessary to create conditions to increase motivation to communicate. In accordance with this principle, communication begins on the initiative of the child, not on the command of the adult.
It is very important to remember that communication does not necessarily include language or speech. Most children with ASD have speech delays or avoid using speech to communicate. Therefore, it is very important to use other methods of communication before the appearance of speech, and the use of language will follow.
As a rule, children with autism begin to speak much later than their peers. When words and phrases emerge, many autistic children are unable to use their language skills to communicate. Often the first words spoken are atypical; instead of the expected “mom” or “dad,” the child suddenly says “TV” or “go away.” Moreover, having been spoken once, these words may not be repeated in the future.
It has been noted that after the appearance of the first words at the age of 11–18 months, the child then becomes silent altogether. a long period time. By about the age of three, some autistic children again experience an increase in speech activity, which is expressed in the fact that the child simply repeats the words of those around him - echolalia. It is characteristic that an autistic child can reflect not only words, but also speech rate and intonation. As a rule, he speaks about himself in the second and third person or uses the infinitive form (“do you want to drink!” instead of “I want to drink!”, “give to Yegor!” instead of “give me!”), i.e., as hears from others. Often the child’s statements contain excerpts from what he heard on TV.
A large proportion of autistic children do not use speech at all. Instead of speech, the child uses vocalizations that signal comfort or discomfort, which parents often call “singing” or “mooing.” Characteristic in such cases is the appearance in the stream of vocalizations of sounds copied from the child’s non-speech environment, and sometimes the outlines of words, which only observant relatives are able to distinguish.
In cases where the vocabulary of an autistic child begins to rapidly expand with age, speech problems arise, which are called semantic-pragmatic disorders. This type of speech disorder is characterized by the inability to adequately use speech for communication, it is specific to high-functioning autism and includes the following symptoms:
- the child usually has a fast speech rate,
- does not know how to listen to the interlocutor, constantly interrupts him,
- does not know how to maintain a conversation and take turns,
- does not know how to convey information, imposes his own, usually the same topic;
- does not understand the context of the conversation due to the specificity of speech perception;
- does not understand what can be said and what cannot be said.
How adults can influence the communication of a child with ASD
Take on the role of not only a helper, but also a teacher
When a child is unable to communicate his needs, adults may be tempted to do everything for him. For example, bring his shoes and tie the laces. However, if you do this, you will reduce the number of opportunities your child can do things on their own. If the child is still in the self-sufficiency stage, it is especially difficult to determine what the child can and cannot do. In such a situation, it is always better to ask the child if he needs help, then wait, then ask a second time, and only then begin to help the child.
Instead of letting your child do things alone, encourage them to do things with other people.
It can be tempting to believe that a child is simply expressing his independence when he shows no interest in interacting with an adult. However, it is extremely important that the child learns to communicate and therefore should not be left to his own devices.
The main trick is to persistently try to join in any activity that the child is interested in, for example, if he is playing with a rope or taking toys out of a box and putting them back. Even if the child reacts to such attempts to join with anger and aggression, keep trying. Anger is also a type of communication, and it is better than no communication at all. As communication continues, the child may eventually realize that interacting with another person can be associated with fun.
Take your time, pause, give your child the opportunity to communicate
Caring for a child with ASD is hard work and takes a lot of time. Often, an adult has a desire to rush a child who is performing everyday tasks, such as eating breakfast or getting dressed. However, it is helpful for a child with ASD to be given a few extra minutes to complete these tasks - he needs extra time to become aware of what is happening around him and to think about what he might say during these activities.
When playing with your child, take on the role of a partner, not a leader.
As the child becomes more competent in communication, he needs less and less guidance. If you ask your child too many questions or suggestions, it will become difficult for him to initiate his own conversation. It is important to follow the child and respond to what he himself does.
Give your child positive feedback
It is very important to reward the child for any attempts to understand and communicate. If you do this, you will increase the likelihood that your child will try it again. You can use simple descriptive phrases that comment on the child's achievements. In this way, the child will be able to make a connection between his own actions and your specific words.
Give your child with ASD a reason to communicate.
If a child with ASD easily gets everything he needs, then he has no reason to communicate and communicate. Therefore, in many cases it is necessary for the adult to artificially create situations in which communication will be necessary for the child to get what he wants, and this will facilitate communication.
Encouraging requests
To do this, you can place your favorite toys/food in places where the child can see them, but cannot reach them, for example, on a high shelf. An alternative is to place your child's favorite item in a container that is difficult for the child to open, such as a jam jar or ice cream container. This will encourage the child to ask for help and will lead to communication between the adult and the child.
Give your child a toy that is difficult to play with independently
Toys that are complex or require pressing to make them work may be challenging for a young child, but may also be of interest to them. Once your child is given a toy/game, give him time to figure out how to use it. When the child begins to feel irritated because he cannot make the toy work, an adult comes up and helps him.
Play with your child with toys of “increased interest”
Toys of high interest include air balloons and soap bubbles because they can easily be adapted to accommodate multiple people. Simple games such as blowing up a balloon and then letting it fly into the air can be a lot of fun for your child. Inflating the balloon halfway and waiting for your child's reaction before inflating it all the way is an easy way to encourage interaction between adult and child. A similar effect can be achieved using soap bubbles- blow a few bubbles towards the child, and as soon as you manage to attract his attention, close the container with the liquid and wait for the child's reaction before blowing more bubbles.
Give items gradually
If a child immediately gets everything he wants, then he has no reason to ask an adult for anything else. If you limit the amount of food/toys you give your child, he will be able to express his wants and needs. For example, if your child wants a cookie, break the cookie into small pieces and give him only one piece, then give him another as soon as he communicates the desire.
Let your child decide when to stop doing something.
If your child is participating in an activity with an adult, continue the activity until the child indicates that it needs to stop. Watch for grimaces of dissatisfaction or when the child pushes away the objects for the activity. In this case, the child was forced to indicate that he was ready to stop the activity. If your child does not use language to indicate that he is finished, accompany his nonverbal communication with words such as “that’s it” and “that’s enough.” Such support will encourage the child’s speech development.
Increase communication by following your child
It is very important to follow the child rather than lead him. This will allow the child to be communicative when doing something with another person and will increase their amount of communication. If a child plays a leading role in his activities, he will pay more attention to the activity, this will teach him to focus on one thing and make independent choices.
If you are following a child, the best position is for the adult to be face to face with the child, this way the adult can easily observe what the child is interested in. This will also help train your child to make eye contact, something a child with ASD typically has difficulty with. It is also important to be on the same visual level as your child - this will allow him to observe the various facial expressions on your face that are used during communication. It is often difficult for a child with ASD to catch nonverbal communicative behavior during a conversation, and therefore it is important to draw his attention to nonverbal signs as early as possible. One can hope that over time the child will get used to the fact that an adult is playing with him on the same level, and he will begin to count on the presence of an adult, and will even call him to play.
To develop two-way communication, it is useful to imitate the child’s actions and repeat his words. For example, if a child hits the table with a spoon and an adult begins to do the same, then the child is likely to pay attention to the adult. The same idea can be used for the sounds the baby makes or the baby's sensory behaviors, such as shaking hands or spinning in place. Once the child establishes that the adult is imitating his actions, he can begin to imitate the adult in response. This creates the opportunity to add something new to communication that the child will repeat.
If a child with ASD is not interested in playing with any of the toys offered, or prefers to line up toys rather than play with them, then there are still opportunities for communication and communication in this situation. For example, if a child arranges his cars in one line, then an adult can join the child and hand him the next car. Thus, the adult has his own role in the game, and the child has to include him in his activities. If a child is only interested in throwing toys on the floor, then an adult can collect the toys in a basket and then give them back to the child so that he can scatter them again. Thus, a pattern of communication and communication with the child is established.
How adults can help a child with ASD better understand what they are told.
A child with ASD has difficulty processing information. This happens because it is difficult for him to understand the world around him. Even when a child with ASD understands a situation, he may still not understand the words that accompany the situation. Sometimes adults only think that the child understands their words, since he follows the instructions given to him. However, a child may simply know what to do in a certain situation, regardless of verbal instructions, simply because he has performed those actions many times in the past.
There are several methods that can help your child better understand what other people are saying to him.
Speak as little and as slowly as possible
Adults should limit the number of words they use to communicate with a child, but the words should be enough to convey all the necessary information. In each specific situation, highlight the key words and focus on them.
Repeat keywords and emphasize them with accompanying gestures, such as pointing to an object that represents the keyword. Sussman (1999) uses the following tip to help adults remember how to make it easier for a child with ASD to understand language:
“Less words, more accents, speak slowly and show!”
If the child has only recently begun to use speech for communication, then the adult should use single words to communicate with the child. For example, simply label your child’s favorite toys and food. If you use this type of communication, it is very important to immediately give the child what you have indicated. If the child’s attention switches to something else, the word will lose its meaning for him.
It is necessary to pause between spoken words and sentences. This will give the child with ASD time to process what they have been told. The adult should use pauses so that the child has time to process the spoken information and also think about his answer.
Using gestures to accompany speech also encourages the child to understand what is being said. For example, when offering a child a drink, an adult should make a gesture pretending that he is holding a glass and drinking. The same can be done if you are talking about food. For the same purpose, you can use exaggerated facial expressions, as well as gestures - nodding your head when saying “yes,” shaking your head when saying “no,” waving your hand when saying “hello” and “bye.” When you talk to your child about other people, for example, “Grandma is staying here,” it is better to simultaneously point to the photo of the person you are talking about with your child.
Other visual techniques can also increase comprehension, including picture schedules, pictures, cue cards, and picture sequences.
Means of auxiliary and alternative communication (ACC)
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is any form of language other than speech that facilitates social communication for a child. There are a huge number of VAK devices for children who cannot speak, because these children themselves are very different from each other. It is therefore very important that the decision to select a VAC for a particular child is a team effort, with the VAC assessed jointly with the child's parent before any decision is made. Criteria for selecting a VAC device include the child's cognitive and motor skills, learning style, communication needs, and reading ability.
The use of VAC devices can be extremely effective for children with ASD. If a child with ASD has never spoken, he may resort to aggressive and problematic behavior because he has no other means of communicating his desires and feelings. The use of a VAC device will provide such a child with a way to socially communicate with others. If it was decided that this child the VAC device is suitable, then the responsibility of all people in its environment is to model the communication system.
There are different types of VAC that are appropriate for a child with ASD, including:
PECS - Picture Exchange Communication System (Frost and Bondy, 1994)
Sign language
There are several sign language systems, such as American Sign Language, British Sign Language, Makaton™, Paget Gorman Signed Language (TM), and Precise Signed English. With a child with ASD, sign language is usually used as part of a total communication approach.
Total Communication is the simultaneous combination of speech and gestures. Thus, the child is provided with a single model of language, which is reproduced in two modalities simultaneously. The total communication approach helps emphasize the meaning of key words in an adult's speech, and this contributes to a better understanding of the language.
Interactive communication boards
Interactive communication boards are visual symbols that are organized by topic. These boards can come in different sizes and formats depending on the activity and situation in which they are needed. Boards can be either portable or stationary, with one board constantly standing in the same place. The selection and organization of visual symbols are designed to motivate the child and improve functional communication.
Cue cards
Cue cards are primarily used with verbal children. They are used to remind the child what to say and to provide him with an alternative means of communication. Typically, such cards consist of one or two messages, which are depicted in the form of a picture and duplicated in the form of written speech. Essentially, the cards replace verbal cues. For this reason, such cards are especially useful for children who are accustomed to relying on oral prompts from adults. Cue cards work well in situations where a child with ASD needs to communicate something while under stress.
Books of conversations
A conversation book may consist only of pictures, or it may include recordings of conversations about everyday topics. The purpose of such a book is to improve conversation skills. The topics of various conversations are organized into a small book, wallet, or similar and used during an actual conversation with an adult. It is very important that the content of the book is age appropriate, and that all the topics of conversation in the book have real meaning in the child's life. You can make the book feel realistic by using photographs of surrounding places and people - this works especially well with young children. Conversation books help your child organize conversations. They visually illustrate the exchange of remarks taking place and help to adhere to general theme conversation.
That's what Heather O'Shea, executive director of Irvine, a center for comprehensive educational services, said when she saw a video presentation made by a mother for her children with autism.
With the help of such videos, a Balboa Island resident named Laura Kasbara taught her autistic children (son Max and daughter Anna) not only to speak and read, but ahead of the school curriculum, to enter college at the age of 16.
“Videos are ideal for helping autistic children learn,” says O’Shea. — They cut off external factors that can distract. They leave the focus on the only thing the child is studying at the moment.”
These videos are part of a curriculum called Gemiini. Laura developed this program herself out of pure necessity.
Her son Max inspired her to achieve this achievement. At the age of 3 years, Max's speech development was at the level of 10- one month old baby. Him and his twin sister Anna was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 years. While Anna began to speak and knew a few words, Max knew none. Laura Kasbar's efforts to get her son to talk were unsuccessful and frustrated her to the point of tears.
But she didn't give up. The idea to make videos came when she learned that her son needed visual support in learning, a means that would not be as intrusive as a common person in three-dimensional space - something that would help him concentrate and learn.
Kasbar and her husband, Brian, stayed up until the early hours of the morning filming these videos. She asked her husband to focus the camera on her lips so that Max could see exactly how a word was being pronounced.
A few days later, Max said his first word: “Puc.”
It was the word cup. He said the word backwards, but Kasbar was delighted, she realized that her method was working.
She has never had and still does not have experience working as a psychologist or ABA therapist.
“I was just a desperate mother who was interested in helping my children succeed,” she said.
An effective tool
The Kasbars, parents of seven children, now want to make their method available to every child and adult with a speech disorder, whether caused by autism, Down syndrome or traumatic brain injury.
For them it became an all-consuming passion. Two years ago, Brian Kasbar left his job in finance to help bring the Gemiini program to the training market. It was only two months ago that the program became widely available through a website, although it has been used in numerous clinical studies over the past 15 years, Laura Kasbar says. This program was studied by researchers from Princeton University and the University of California at San Diego.
Last year, the Irvine Unified School District conducted an experiment with children from kindergarten who were autistic. Patricia Fabrizio, who teaches children in primary school Alderwood, said the children spent 20 minutes a day, five days a week, doing exercises with Gemiini modeling videos. And they did this for 10 weeks.
“The kids really enjoyed it,” Fabrizio said, “It was great to see them all paying attention to the video at the same time.”
She said Disney videos or other educational videos did not appeal to the group because they were unpredictable. She also noted that while watching such videos, children were constantly distracted or screaming.
But Gemiini's videos took away the element of surprise. They provided a level of comfort for the children, which helped them learn, Fabrizio said.
She assured that Gemiini perfectly complements other learning tools.
The results of the Gemiini clinical trial, conducted in four classrooms in the Inglewood School District, will be published in March in the journal Special Education Technology, Kasbar said. The study, which is currently being peer-reviewed, concludes that effective and inexpensive therapies such as Gemiini show "promise" because they can significantly improve the language of children with autism and other disabilities in special education classrooms.
The creators of the method claim that Gemiini can help children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome, dyslexia or any disorder that prevents them from learning language and reading skills normally.
“All these years, information about the program has spread only by word of mouth,” Kasbar shared. “Parents would learn about the system from another parent or therapist and then contact me. And I made a video for them.”
Study Focus
Now the video production team has expanded from two people (the Kasbars) to an entire team of professionals: actors, video editors, editors and producers who work in Spokane, Wash.
The videos themselves “are very different,” ranging from typical instructional videos to ones that may seem counterintuitive to some, notes Kasbar.
Each video lasts from 30 seconds to two or even five minutes depending on the grade level and age of the student. Typically, a video for teaching new words consists of three segments. The first segment shows a man standing against a white screen, speaking the word. A picture appears in the background depicting the meaning of the word.
The second segment shows a close-up of just the mouth of the person saying the word. In the third part, the word is repeated several times without a face in the picture. But the video shows images of different trousers, for example, so that the student knows that trousers can have different shapes, sizes and details.
Kasbar argues that there is a reason for this particular format.
“Autistic children tend to have indiscriminate memory. They tend to internalize everything they see,” she said. “In this way, video helps filter information so they can study without distractions and remember what is relevant to the subject matter being studied.”
“Additionally, children with autism have difficulty making eye contact and interacting with ‘real’ people,” Kasbar noted. “Therefore, teaching through 2D video rather than real person, makes the task easier."
Kaspar believes that best time to play video - while eating. The videos are also well-received when shown to a group of children, she said.
Maria Gilmore, a behavior analyst practicing in Portland, Oregon, says that when used correctly, Gemiini can eliminate the need for therapists to spend hours a day in therapy, teaching children things they could learn via video just as effectively. This saves thousands of dollars in therapy costs.
“As far as I can tell, it works better than any intervention for language and social skills,” Gilmore says. “There is no doubt that autistic people learn faster through video modeling.”
She has used this approach in her work for about two years and recommends it to clients around the world.
“This program is great for remote areas of the world where therapists are not available,” she said. “Even here in the United States, we have a huge shortage of therapists compared to the number that is needed.”
Distribution of the program
Laura and Brian Kasbar said they have started using Gemiini in several countries. The program is already available in Spanish, Chinese and American Sign Language.
In countries such as the UK, Australia, South Africa, Botswana and India, children watch it English language. The couple plans to expand the program to countries such as Jordan and are looking for translators from Arab countries.
“We are also looking for cultural consultants because we want to incorporate culture into our video presentations,” Laura said.
The Gemiini website features a library of over 12,000 videos where anyone can learn words, languages, numbers, and even professional skills like interview preparation. Parents or guardians can go into the library, select their categories, and customize them to their individual needs. There is also a tool that helps parents, caregivers or therapists measure a child's progress over time.
For this family, the Gemiini program is more than a business venture.
“It's about helping children and families who don't have access to therapy anywhere in the world,” Laura Kasbar said. "With Gemiini, if you have the Internet, you have therapy."
Kimberly Piersell
I know you can't hear me, but I'm talking to you.
And I hear everything you tell me.
I hear you laugh when I do something funny.
I hear you shout hurray
When I try so hard.
I hear you tell others that you wouldn't trade me for the world,
even despite all the trials that came with me... And I know that you know: I understand everything.
And you know that I listen when you talk to me.
But I want you to know, mom...
I'm talking with you. ("I am speaking with you"
By Jessica Soukup, (translation))
About the features nonverbal communication in children with autism.
Every year more and more children with autism spectrum disorder come to school. Having quite a lot of experience speech therapy work with various speech disorders in children, we begin to work with children with a history of ASD. Starting this year, our school has two autonomous resource classes. A fairly large number of methodological and digital resources were processed in a relatively short period of time. There is a certain immersion, understanding and awareness of the problems caused by the condition of the autistic child. Of course, there is a desire to help. We are trying to generalize and structure some blocks of knowledge. So, let's try to separate the concepts of communication and communication. Communication is the interaction of two or more persons, which is based on the mutual exchange of information of a cognitive and affective-evaluative nature. Communication, during which information is exchanged between systems in living and inanimate nature and society, is communication. Communication is a broader concept than communication, and therefore these concepts are differentiated. Communication can be carried out using speech and non-speech methods. Non-speech methods of communication include: optical-kinetic methods (gestures, facial expressions, pantomime), paralinguistic methods (voice quality and range, tonality), extralinguistic methods (pauses, crying, laughter, speech rate), spatio-temporal methods (location of partners, temporary delays in the start of communication, etc.)
Nonverbal communication is based on a polysensory nature, that is, perception through hearing, vision, smell, tactile sensitivity, etc. different types non-verbal information (emotional, aesthetic, biophysical, social group, spatial, psychological). During communication, this information is transmitted within the nonverbal channel from the speaker to the listener, regardless of the content of the verbal message.
It is known that nonverbal communication is an integral part interpersonal relationships and social interactions. Thus, an autistic child may have impaired formation of all forms of nonverbal and verbal communication. First of all, he does not form eye contact, the child does not look into the eyes of an adult, does not reach out with a request to take him in his arms, as a baby with normal psychophysical development does already in the early stages of socio-emotional development. In some cases, children may stretch out their hands in the appropriate direction, but without attempting to name the desired object, without looking at an adult, without verbal or auditory manifestation of their desire. When interacting with an adult, a child with autism shows insufficient use of facial expressions, gestures, and intonation in the voice. The child’s facial expressions are inexpressive; a typical look is along or through the interlocutor. Such children may inadequately use gaze, gestures, and facial expressions; it is difficult for them to regulate the optimal distance; they are unable to develop relationships with peers, understand the experiences, emotions, thoughts of other people, and acquire and consolidate social experience.
Features of nonverbal communication of a child with autism are manifested in the inability to navigate and independently initiate a call, to express interest in an adult as a new person, in the difficulty of maintaining contact, in the absence of attempts to interact, in the focus of behavioral activity primarily on manipulating objects rather than with the interlocutor, in difficulties in using adequate methods of communication, including predominantly untargeted stereotypical body movements, together with inexpressive facial expressions, touches, vocalizations or individual words.
The leading role in the process of nonverbal communication with an autistic child belongs to an adult. He establishes and establishes interaction, starting from the communicative nonverbal indicators that he was able to recognize in the behavior of each individual child.
Any nonverbal actions of an autistic child have communicative potential and carry communicative information. That is, the manifestations of the behavior of an autistic child can be considered as ways of his communication, attempts to communicate something to others. At the same time, the cognitive component is not important for nonverbal communication, as in speech communication, the presence of conscious designation of gestures.
The fullness of the communication process becomes important, quality characteristics movements and ways of non-verbal self-expression through communication.
Children with autism have high sensory sensitivity, are overwhelmed by sensory sensations and often cannot separate themselves from them. To their specifics communicative activities may be influenced by the polysensory nature of nonverbal information and the inability to integrate it and regulate the flow of sensory information. In such cases, the use of non-verbal methods of communication (gesture, drawing, pictogram, pex picture) for the purpose of reinforcement allows a child with autism to better perceive and understand verbal messages. Consequently, nonverbal communication does not require the child to have developed articulatory, phonemic skills and abilities and is of a polysensory nature.
About the features of verbal communication in children with autism
Speech disorders occupy a significant place among the characteristic signs of early childhood autism, as a reflection of the immaturity of communicative behavior. A number of studies emphasize the connection of speech disorders with a deficit of mental activity and dissociation between the acoustic and semantic aspects of speech. The formation of speech in children with autistic disorders has a number of features. Often such children do not have the stages of humming and babbling, and if humming is present, it is mechanical, devoid of an intonation component. Often, a child’s speech appears long before he begins to walk. The first words do not have targeted content and do not serve as a way of communication; they are pronounced spontaneously, without taking into account the situation and create the impression of playing with words. Sometimes pronouncing individual words takes on a ritual character and makes it easier to perform a particular action.
Neologisms are often used in speech. There is a violation of the semantic aspect of words. Speech is often chanted, imperative, and the intonation component does not reflect the emotional state of the child and the environment in which he is located. Almost all children with autistic disorders have incorrect use of pronouns, especially “I”, most children talk about themselves in the third person, or call themselves by name, some do not show the desire to talk about themselves and express their needs.
Often, after the appearance of the first words, a child develops mutism and persists for quite a long time. A child with such a speech disorder cannot respond to spoken speech, including his own name, or pay attention to speech more than to any noise.
Such children may outwardly seem completely indifferent to the speech of adults, and the speech of adults cannot always regulate their behavior. However, along with this, children often spontaneously, without taking into account the situation, immediately or after some time reproduce what they heard, even with the preservation of the intonation component (immediate or delayed echolalia).
Echolalia can be considered as one of the qualities of the method of holistic structure of speech development, when the child uses parts of verbal fragments as a whole. Echolalia can be non-communicative, i.e. used to obtain auditory and tactile satisfaction, and communicative, i.e. performs several functions:
Indication of lack of understanding of the surrounding situation;
A way of comprehending and processing information that helps translate spoken words into inner speech;
The request is in the only accessible form.
Echolalia can also be used as a social strategy. Echolalia becomes a form of communication, a route towards more correct forms of self-expression. With this approach to the problem, echolalia becomes not an element of speech that should be turned off, as previously thought, but a form of speech that has a connecting function.
U speech child there may be many stereotypes, verbal cliches of adult words. These children may have a large vocabulary, they often pronounce long monologues, but have great difficulty in normal conversation. Individual words that the child has already used in speech may disappear for a long time and then appear again.
Children with autistic disorders are sometimes capable of repeating actions or phrases many times, but with selectivity specific to them, i.e. a child can stereotypically and tirelessly perform the same series of movements without transferring the experience gained to another situation, repeat the same words and phrases, giving them a certain meaning or simply playing with them.
Children with autism tend to use requests in an unusual form, reproduce factual visual material, certain hysterical or auto-aggressive manifestations aimed at a strong emotional response from others, and also, possibly, an attempt to establish contact through echolalia. A child often cannot address another person in a directed manner, simply call his mother, ask her for something, express his needs, but is able to involuntarily repeat words and phrases that are not assigned to the situation.
Children with autism are characterized by excessive literalness in understanding words, pronouns, confirmation through repetition, demands for the same verbal repetition, metaphorical speech (consists in the figurative use of a word or expression based on analogy, similarity or comparison), which reflect violations in social, cognitive and communication areas.
Using only a tiny set of speech patterns for activities, a child with autism can simultaneously show acute sensitivity to the speech forms of words as such. For such children, there is usually a passion for rhymes, verses, and reading them by heart. An ear for music and sensitivity to rhythmic speech, attention to high poetry surprises everyone who surrounds such children in life.
O. Nikolskaya identified three groups of children according to the severity and nature of secondary disorders speech development. In studies by scientists on the development of speech in children with autism, A.V. Arshatsky, O.S. Arshatskaya, E.R. Baenskoy, V.M. Bashina, S.S. Morozova, O.S. Nikolskoy, L.G. Nurieva, L.M. Shipitsyna and others noted a violation of the communicative function of speech, which manifests itself both in the inability to fully perceive verbal information (weakness or complete lack of reaction to the speech of an adult simultaneously with increased sensitivity to non-speech sounds, lack of understanding of simple everyday instructions and addressed speech), and in the inability to adequately form verbal expression and interaction with surrounding people according to the situation.
In general, communication disorders in autism are quite diverse. Since childhood, children with autism have experienced a significant delay in the formation of nonverbal methods of communication, as well as speech development, which is manifested by systemic underdevelopment of all its aspects. Subsequently, the formation of speech occurs specifically and has a number of features, variability and unevenness of speech development, insufficient understanding of addressed speech, the use of echolalia, the presence of neologisms, rearrangement of pronouns, the use of unusual intonation, lack of addresses to the interlocutor for the purpose of communication.
The identified features of the development of nonverbal and verbal communication certainly complicate the child’s interaction with others. However, under the condition of long-term and qualified correctional and developmental work, one can notice significant changes in the social, communicative, and speech spheres.
Prepared by speech therapist Yu.E. Novak
Literature:
1.Bashina V.M. Autism in childhood - M.: “Medicine”, 1999
2. Ivanov E.S., Demyanchuk L.N., Demyanchuk R.V. Childhood autism: diagnosis and correction. Textbook. St. Petersburg Didactics plus, 2004.
3. Morozov V.P. Nonverbal communication in the speech communication system. Psychophysiological and psychoacoustic foundations. – M.: Ed. IP RAS, 1998.
4. Nikolskaya O.S., Baenskaya E.R., Liebling M.M., Kostin I.A. and others. Children and adolescents with autism. Psychological support.-M.: Terevinf. 2005.
5. Shipitsyna L.M., Zashirinskaya O.V. Nonverbal communication in children with normal and impaired intelligence. Monograph. – St. Petersburg; Speech, 2009.
Introduction
Current state of the problem of developing communication skills in children with childhood autism
1.1 The concept of communication, its structure, types, main stages of development in ontogenesis
1.2 Features of communication in children with RDA
1.3 Features of development play activity in children with childhood autism
2.Formation of communication skills of children with ASD
1 Goals, objectives and methods of studying communication skills in children with childhood autism
2.2 Study of verbal and nonverbal communication of children with autism
3 Study of the play activities of children with RDA
3. Pedagogical correction of communication skills in children with childhood autism
3.1 Principles and methods of pedagogical correction for children with RDA
2 Formation of communication skills in children with autism using play techniques
3.3 Control experiment
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
According to modern researchers, the incidence of forms of autism in children is 40-45 cases per 10,000 newborns for childhood autism and 60-70 cases for other forms of autistic disorders. Today, due to the clinical diversity of manifestations of this disorder, as well as from a purely practical point of view in correctional work with children with various forms Autistic disorders have a lot in common, and as a kind of compromise between theory and practice, the term “autism spectrum disorder - ASD” arose, uniting all variants of autistic disorders.
In the modern world, there is a tendency to increase the incidence of autism spectrum disorders in children. In this regard, the question of the possibilities of socialization of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders is very relevant.
Analysis of the literature data showed that there are a number of classifications of childhood autism. Having analyzed their content, we can conclude that the conceptual-categorical apparatus is insufficiently clear. In Russia, the terms and concepts set out in the ICD and in the works of V.M. are common. Bashina. In recent years, the term “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD), which includes: autistic disorder, infantile autism, infantile autism, infantile psychosis, Kanner syndrome, Asperberger syndrome, etc., has become commonly used.
According to the majority of authors (E.R. Baenskaya, O.S. Nikolskaya, M.M. Liebling, S.S. Morozova, R. Jordan, L. Kanner, B. M. Prizant, M. Rutter, H. Tager-Flusberg, A.L. Schuler, etc.), one of the main disorders that impede successful adaptation in autism spectrum disorders in children is qualitative impairments in communication skills represented by the following indicators: a lag or complete absence of spoken language, inability to initiate or maintain a conversation with others, stereotypical use of language, lack of a variety of spontaneous play or social imitation games. It is emphasized that the underdevelopment of verbal communication is not compensated spontaneously by the use of non-verbal means (gestures, facial expressions) and alternative communication systems. (DSM-IV).
Specialists different countries Some experience has been accumulated allowing us to conclude that the formation of communication skills in early childhood autism is a pedagogical problem. In this regard, in recent decades, foreign researchers have identified approaches to developing the communication skills of preschoolers with childhood autism. At the same time, specialists are developing methods for correcting communication skills in children of this category.
In domestic correctional pedagogy and special psychology, the clinical condition of children who suffer from autism spectrum disorders has been described in sufficient detail, and the specific features of speech and communication of such children have been characterized. But despite this, there is a lack of diagnostic techniques that allow assessing the level of development of communication skills. Separate methodological techniques are described that are aimed not so much at the formation, but at the development of speech as a whole. (S.S. Morozova, O.S. Nikolskaya, V.M. Bashina, T.I. Morozova, L.G. Nuriev.)
The formation of communication skills of preschoolers with early childhood autism can be effective provided that a differentiated system of pedagogical correction is developed and implemented, taking into account the characteristics and level of development of these skills and including the use of gaming skills. The use of gaming techniques to develop communication skills in preschool children with ASD is one of the most effective, since play is the leading activity in preschool age.
The relevance of the topic was determined research problem: what areas in the system of pedagogical correction contribute to the effective formation of communication skills in preschool children with early childhood autism. The purpose of the studyis the development of a differentiated system of pedagogical correction aimed at developing the communication skills of preschool children with childhood autism, taking into account their level of development and including the use of game techniques. Object of study- communication of preschool children with childhood autism. Subject of study -pedagogical process of developing communication skills in preschool children with early childhood autism, including the use of gaming techniques. The purpose, object and subject of the study determined hypothesis: the formation of communication skills in preschoolers with childhood autism can be effective provided that a differentiated system of pedagogical correction is developed, taking into account the characteristics and level of development of these skills and including the use of game techniques. In accordance with the purpose and hypothesis of the study, the following were determined: tasks: · determine the theoretical and methodological foundations of the problem of developing communication skills in preschool children with RDA; · identify specific features and levels of development of communication and play skills in preschool children with RDA; · determine the directions, content and techniques of a differentiated system of pedagogical correction for the formation of communication skills; to check the effectiveness of the developed system of pedagogical correction, including the use of game techniques during experimental work Methodological basisthe issue under study consisted of philosophical ideas about the leading role of communication in the formation of personality; provisions of psychology and pedagogy on the unity of thinking and speech (L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, V.I. Lubovsky, S.L. Rubinstein), research by M.I. Lisina, demonstrating that communication is a decisive factor influencing the mental development of a child, the concept of periodization of mental development in ontogenesis, the psychological theory of play by D.B. Elkonin. This study is based on the idea of childhood autism as a distorted type of mental development, the main manifestation of which is a communication disorder that arises as a result of affective disorders (E.R. Baenskaya, O.S. Nikolskaya, K.S. Lebedinskaya, V.V. Lebedinsky, etc. .) and cognitive deficiencies (L.Wing, D.M. Ricks, J.A. Ungerer, R. Jordan, M. Sigman, etc.) The work used a comprehensive differentiated approach to correctional work (T.A. Vlasova) To solve the problems and test the hypothesis, the following were used: research methods: · theoretical research methods: analysis of psychological, pedagogical, psycholinguistic and medical literature on the problem of developing communication skills in preschool children with ASD; · organizational methods: comparative, longitudinal (study over time), complex; · experimental methods: ascertaining, formative, control; · psychodiagnostic methods: observation, questionnaire tests, conversations, interviews; · biographical methods: collection and analysis of anamnestic data; · quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data obtained; Scientific novelty of the research. In progress research work:
-the goals and means of correctional pedagogical influence on children with early childhood autism have been determined, taking into account the needs of the child, the expectations of his family and society as a whole -Corrective pedagogical work includes consistent structured sets of classes based on gameplay, for successful correctional and pedagogical influence on the child, taking into account his individual needs. -use in correctional - pedagogical work as a support for the method of interaction with the child during play activities for the process of developing communication and play skills of children 3-5 years old with RDA. The choice of method is justified by the fact that gaming activities are comfortable for preschool children, which makes it possible to achieve a positive reaction to contact with the child for further correctional and pedagogical activities. Theoretical significanceresearch is that: A scientifically based set of modified methods for developing communication skills for preschool children with RDA has been developed. The need for the use of modern technologies in correctional pedagogical work on the development of communication skills for preschool children with RDA is substantiated. The conceptual foundations for the formation and development of communication skills for preschool children with RDA are formulated, including significant principles and conditions for increasing motivational and moral-aesthetic basic skills in children of this age, and the formation of the foundations of communication. Practical significance of the study: Taking into account individual characteristics the personality of each child, their physical and psychological characteristics, the need for a complex impact on the body of the participants in the process, a set of modified game techniques has been developed for the process of communication skills for preschool children with RDA. The complex was tested and achieved positive results. The provisions and conclusions enrich the scientific, methodological and practical base of institutions. The proposed set of gaming techniques is used in practical institutions by specialists - speech therapists, teachers - defectologists, teachers - psychologists. Organization of the study.The experimental study was carried out on the basis of the State Budgetary Professional educational institution city of Moscow "Small Business College No. 4" Preschool building 1. The work was carried out in three stages:
At the first stage, the problem of the process of developing communication skills in preschool children with early childhood autism was analyzed. At this stage, an analysis of psychological, pedagogical, psycholinguistic and medical research was carried out, the purpose, hypothesis, and objectives of the study were determined. At the second stage, a confirmatory experiment was conducted, during which specific features and levels of development of communication and play skills in preschool children with early childhood autism were identified. At the third stage, formative and control experiments were carried out, as a result of which they were developed and adapted guidelines on the development of communication and play skills in children with early childhood autism. 1. Current state of the problem of developing communication skills in children with childhood autism
.1 The concept of communication, its types, structure, main ontogenetic stages of development
In the literature today there are many studies in the field of communication. The sources contain information about the types, structure and specific features of communication, stages of development of communication. Considering the most well-known approaches to this issue, there are two main ones. Information theory says that communication is the sending of information from one system to another and the reception of this information. The main thing in this is the fact of information transfer. Communication is the act of transmitting a message, on the one hand, and the act of receiving and interpreting, on the other hand. . Some authors take a different point of view. Those who participate in the communication process assume the partner’s activity. The interlocutor plays the role of a subject, not an object of interaction. As a result, it is important to analyze the motives, attitudes and goals of the partner to whom the information is directed. Then the logical conclusion would be that in response to the information, new information will be received, coming from another participant in the communication process. Summarizing the above, we can assume that between the participants in communication there is not just a transfer, but an active exchange of information between the subjects participating in the communication. Also, when developing communication skills, it becomes very important to take into account the formal side, recording the transfer of information. It should be remembered that individuals participating in communication have a direct influence on each other. In the process of communication, interaction occurs between partners, which entails an influence on the behavior of the participants in communication and a change in the relationship between them. In this regard, it must be remembered that communicative influence occurs under the condition that all participants in communication have a unified system for encoding and decoding information. It is this aspect of communication that ensures that partners understand each other. Many modern researchers agree that communication is a structural unit of communication. Communication is an element of communication during which ideas, interests and feelings are exchanged. D.B. Elkonin is a supporter of the opinion that communication should be identified as a separate type of activity. In addition, mutual information in the communication process leads to the emergence joint activities. If we consider communication from the point of view of its structure, we can distinguish three interconnected sides: perceptual, interactive and communicative. [Andreeva G.M.] Communication is an aspect of activity, and activity is a condition of communication. [Leontiev A.A.]. Communication has three important functions: affective-communicative, information-communicative, regulatory-communicative. [Lomov B.F.] To the communicative functions that are formed in early age The following can be included: statement of fact, explanation of what is happening, expression of feelings, request for information, etc. Researchers distinguish two types of information: motivating and ascertaining. Ascertaining information implies a message that does not directly affect the behavior of the participants in the conversation. But indirect influence on behavior remains possible. Incentive information is aimed at motivating actions and directly changing the behavior of the interlocutor. The process of transmitting information is carried out using sign systems. Depending on sign systems, two types of communication are distinguished: verbal and non-verbal. Speech and language acquisition are the basis of verbal communication. Speech - universal remedy communications. Verbal communication is most often expressed in the form of dialogue. Dialogue is a variable exchange of remarks between two or more people. Nonverbal communication - communication through gestures, facial expressions, through direct or indirect bodily contacts. Many forms of nonverbal communication are innate for a person, which allows him to fully interact at the level of emotions and behavior. For example, a child's request to be picked up can be expressed by stretching his arms. A child’s smile when looking at a familiar person indicates positive emotions. A person is able to perceive more information about a person’s true feelings and emotions through non-verbal signals. This suggests that nonverbal communication makes communication most effective. There are sign systems of nonverbal communication 1.Optical-kinetic system. It includes: facial expressions, pantomimes, feelings, emotions of a person and his appearance. 2.Paralinguistic and extralinguistic systems. The extralinguistic system is the rate of speech, crying, coughing, pauses, laughter, etc. The paralinguistic system includes the vocal qualities of the voice, timbre, range, and tone. 3.Organization of time and space of communication. This system is special because it gives meaning to the communicative situation. The organization of space and time of communication has the following components: direction of partners relative to each other, visual contact, distance between partners during communication. Based on the listed components of the communication process, we can note the importance and diversity of nonverbal communication. Verbal and nonverbal communication are used together or separately depending on the participants in the communication and the situation in which they find themselves. Researchers identify elements of communication. 1.Source (communicator) 2.Encoding information 3.Decoding information 4.Recipient (recipient) If we consider the elements of communication more fully, we can find nine: The sender is the one who sends the information. 2.Coding is the process of converting information into symbol form 3.Appeal - characters converted by the sender. 4.Media dissemination - channels through which information is transmitted. 5.Decoding is the process by which the recipient recognizes the characters received 6.The recipient is the one who receives information from the sender. 7.Response - responses from the recipient that occur during interaction with the sender. 8.Feedback is part of the response that the recipient brings to the attention of the sender. 9.Interference is the appearance of distortions or interference from outside, which lead to the fact that the sent information differs from what was originally sent. [F. Kotler] The psychological structure of communication consists of: · Communication needs · Possibility of choice of communication means · Ability to use dialogue skills · Ability to play roles in the communication process · Ability to express social functions The elements of communication in their totality ensure effective communication at a high level. The following parameters are identified that determine the effectiveness of a child’s communication: Ø the ability to listen to your interlocutor; Ø the ability to use and understand gestures according to their meaning; Ø the presence of assistance in communication, which consists of the objects in question (images of objects, symbols, etc.) Ø the ability to use and understand physique in a communication situation; Ø the ability to use vocalizations and speech to express types of intonation that depend on the situation in the communication process These conditions play a huge role in the formation of communication skills in children. Their deficiency leads to disruption of ontogenetic development and disruption of the sequence of formation of communication skills. An analysis of the literature on this issue showed that in the process of ontogenetic development it is normal developing child consistently masters a set of specific communication skills (see Table 1). Table 1 Formation of communication skills during normal ontogenetic development AgeCommunication skills1 year - the child periodically imitates words; - uses gestures to express all communicative functions; - play in simple games, aimed at social interaction; - combines gestures and words to express basic communication functions; - demonstrates preferences in a choice situation; 2 years - the child uses nonverbal means of communication to initiate interaction with peers; - comments and describes current events; - answers to simple questions; - asks simple questions; - comforts other people in nonverbal ways; - supports simple dialogue with adults; 3 years - the child retells a familiar story while looking at the picture; - the child transfers past experiences into a real situation when he is asked to do the same; - talks about his feelings; - periodically enters into dialogue with peers; - enters into a simple dialogue on the phone; - initiates interaction with peers using verbal means of communication; - uses body language and facial expressions to convey information; 4 years - dialogue skills are developed and improved when communicating with peers; - the child retells a familiar story, television episode or movie plot; - uses social phrases (e.g., “sorry,” “excuse me”); -understands the logical sequence of events; - understands how to respond to other people's feelings; - begins to understand the body language of the interlocutor; 5 years - the child communicates on various topics; -begins to take into account the point of view of the interlocutor; - builds a dialogue based on the needs of the interlocutor; - uses speech to negotiate with the interlocutor and come to a compromise solution. Based on these data, by the age of five to seven years, subject to normal development, the child masters basic communication skills, which leads to his successful adaptation in the social environment. Despite this, there are cases when a child is not able to independently master the communication skills necessary for successful socialization. One of the most striking examples of the manifestation of communication disorders and undeveloped communication skills are children with autism. It is with such children that it is necessary to work with special training aimed at developing communication skills. .2 Features of communication in children with childhood autism
Researchers have identified communication features characteristic of children with autism, among which the following can be noted: stereotypical behavior and getting stuck on one type of activity, difficulties in understanding the communicative situation, reluctance to take part in communication with one interlocutor or with several. Impaired communication is the main diagnostic feature of childhood autism. In childhood autism, communication impairment begins in the early stages of child development. Interesting studies have been conducted on various expressions of feelings (greeting, surprise, feeling of dissatisfaction, demand) in response to situational emotions from the outside. Children in the prelinguistic stage with normal development and children with autism were studied. The age of autistic children is from 3 to 6 years, and the age of normally developing children is from 1 to 2 years. The study showed that parents of children with autism were able to recognize the sounds of their children's reactions and the reactions of typically developing children who had the same emotional and semantic interpretation. But despite this, it was noted that when listening to the sound reactions of other children with autism, the same parents were unable to recognize the meaning of these emotional manifestations. These studies allow us to highlight several features: Children with autism either do not have or lose the ability to express emotions that everyone can recognize (universal emotions). Children diagnosed with autism express their feelings purposefully. In order to recognize the emotional expressions of a child with autism, you need to know him well enough. Based on research, the following communication disorders can be identified in autistic children in the early stages of development: ü lack of fixation of gaze on the person’s eyes, avoidance of visual contact ü lack of social smiling (reaction to mother or other loved one). ü not a pronounced reaction to the mother’s face, sound, light, disturbance of the revitalization complex ü indifferent or negative attitude towards other people, poor interaction ü the buzz may be absent, monotonous, and not have a communicative meaning ü lack of reaction to a name, weak reaction to another person’s speech or its complete absence; ü unformed pointing gesture. Despite the fact that the features of communication disorders at an early age are identified, their manifestation is not systematic. Based on this, some authors suggest that diagnosing autism in infancy is not fully possible. There is an opinion that the specificity in the communication of children with autism is more clearly manifested in the second year of a child’s life. Peculiarities in behavior begin to appear by the age of one and a half years. Among the manifestations, the following shortcomings are noted: attention, instability of emotions, poor response. Already in the first months of life, children with autism showed impairments in expressive and receptive communication. A lack of communication with parents through eye or tactile contact was revealed. It was also revealed that there were no separate reactions to changes in maternal behavior. Observations by foreign researchers have shown that emotional disturbances, impaired auditory and visual behavior, abnormal development motor sphere in children with autism is observed in the first two years of life. Also, in these children, deficiencies in social interaction were noticed in the form of hypotonia and hypoactivity, supported by minimal expression of any emotional reactions. Based on these studies, we can say that already at the early stages of development, children with autism exhibit disturbances in synchronized communication, which, at this stage of development, is formed in normal children. Based on the observations of researchers, it can be assumed that many children with autism do not develop functional speech. At the same time, the formation of nonverbal communication to compensate for speech does not occur. Some children are still able to master functional speech, which manifests itself in basic attempts at communication. Researchers are looking at some features of expressive language in children with autism: 1.Stereotypical speech, consisting of repeated statements with no specific meaning. 2.Features of prosody 3.With formed speech, its use in dialogue is not spontaneous 4.Direct and delayed echololia The most interesting feature for researchers is echololy. Some of them believe that echololy is a statement whose meaning is often not clear to the child. They are inclined to believe that in children with autism, echololia manifests itself when the child interacts with someone one-on-one and when establishing a visual connection. Considering the phenomenon of echolalia, two assumptions were made: · in cases where the child does not understand the meaning of his echolalic utterances, echolalia for the child serves as a way to enter into a conversation · in the case when the child is fully aware of the meaning of echolalia manifestations, echolalia is used by him as autostimulation or purposeful transmission of information Due to the multidirectionality of these assumptions, a number of researchers have found that normally developing children also go through the stage of echolalia. In this regard, we can say that echololy precedes conscious speech utterance. Based on these findings, echolalia began to be positioned as a positive stage for normal speech development. According to foreign authors, autistic children have problems understanding speech. This violation manifests itself in the form of a misunderstanding of the signal and symbolic meaning of speech units of communication, as well as a misunderstanding of the context in which speech utterances are used. Foreign researchers note that the main difficulty in understanding speech in a child is... That the child is unable to understand the meaning of units of speech and speech as part of a specific context. The researchers concluded that even with visual cues, understanding speech in a certain situation given to a child is difficult. Over time, the child's ability to use language in context. Relying on previous experience, becomes possible. But as a rule, this positive phenomenon is temporary. Domestic scientists are of the opinion that impaired understanding of speech in a child with autism occurs not because of difficulties in understanding the syntactic structures themselves, but because of difficulties in mastering the connections between them, the connections between the image of a word and its meaning. Also, domestic researchers believe that one of the main reasons for a child’s misunderstanding of speech is a violation of autostimulation and behavior. It is important to note that verbal communication impairment indicates that an autistic child is not able to communicate normally through speech. In some situations, autistic children express their requests and convey some information in unusual ways: · a request can only serve as a means of autostimulation; · speech utterances sometimes do not have any communicative nature; · For the purpose of communication, the child prefers to use echololy, but at the same time does not pay attention to the person at whom communication attempts are directed. Analysis of modern literature data and generally accepted diagnostic systems allows us to identify the so-called “triad of disorders” characteristic of children with childhood autism: -impairment of social interaction; -communication skills; imagination or flexibility of thinking. The scheme proposed by L. Wing, R. Jordan, S. Powell gives the most complete picture of the clinical, psychological and pedagogical features of childhood autism (Fig. 1). Figure 1. “The Triad of Violations” (Wing, 1996; Jordan, Powell, 1995) According to R.P. Hobson, autistic children are characterized by a lack of ability to perceive the emotions of other people and adequately respond to them. U. Frith also emphasizes that autistic children have problems understanding and deciphering the meaning of emotions; they demonstrate a lack of empathy, they are characterized by a lack of flexibility of thinking, difficulties in understanding the hidden meaning. According to A.R. Damasio, R. G. Maurer, disturbances in affective activity and difficulties in assessing emotions are associated with a lack of functioning of the parts of the brain responsible for these processes. This can impede their ability to see the meaning and significance of what is happening, as well as hinder their self-awareness and, as a result, understanding of other people. The difficulty with “awareness of oneself” and the assessment of affective experiences is expressed in the inability to realize one’s own emotional states, which prevents the understanding of the mental, “mental states” of other people: their desires, intentions. Emotional disturbances in children with autism appear from the first months of life and are closely related to disturbances in behavior, communication and social interaction. Let's consider the main stages and patterns social development in children with childhood autism. At the age of six months, an autistic child is less active and demanding than with normal development. Some children are very excitable. They show little eye contact. They have no reciprocal social manifestations. An autistic child does not imitate sounds, gestures, or facial expressions. By 8 months, about 1/3 of children become overly withdrawn and may actively reject interaction. About 1/3 of children with autism love attention but have little interest in other people. By the age of one year, when an autistic child masters walking independently, contact usually decreases. There is no distress when separated from the mother. In some cases, withdrawal or lack of response occurs when trying to attract the child’s attention to objects in the environment. The absence of a pointing gesture is noted. Very often, when a child wants something, he approaches a person he knows, takes him by the hand and leads him to the desired object without making eye contact. At two years old, a child with autism distinguishes his parents from others, but does not express much affection. He can hug and kiss, but he does it formally, automatically, or at the request of another person. Does not distinguish between adults (except parents). Severe fears are possible. Typically, such a child prefers solitude. At the age of 3 years, an autistic child, in many cases, becomes excitable. Doesn't allow other people to come near him. Cannot understand the meaning of punishment. By the age of four, the ability to understand the rules of the game is not formed. Unlike typically developing children, at the age of five an autistic child is more interested in adults than in peers. Often becomes more sociable, but the interaction is characterized by strangeness and one-sidedness. According to the theory, depending on the degree of impairment in the sphere of socialization, three groups of autistic children can be distinguished: socially alienated, passively interactingAnd interacting “actively, but strangely”.
1.
Social alienationcharacterized by the following features: alienation and indifference towards the outside world (the exception is situations when special needs are met child); interaction with an adult is carried out primarily tactilely (tickling, touching); social contacts do not cause noticeable interest in the child; there are weak signs of verbal and nonverbal interaction; lack of ability for joint activities and mutual attention; avoiding eye contact; stereotypical behavior; in some cases - lack of response to changes in the environment; moderate to severe cognitive impairment. 2.
Passive interaction, characterized by the following manifestations: limited ability for spontaneous social contacts; the child accepts the attention of other people (children and adults); the child does not experience obvious satisfaction from social contacts, at the same time, cases of active refusal to interact are rare; it is possible to use verbal and non-verbal forms of communication; Characteristic is direct echolalia, less often - delayed; cognitive impairment of varying severity. 3.At "active but strange" interactionthe following features are noted: spontaneous attempts at social contacts (more often with respect to adults, less often with children); during interaction, in some cases, characteristic repetitive actions are observed: repeated repetition of questions, verbal stereotypes; depending on the situation, speech has a communicative and non-communicative orientation, direct and delayed echolalia is noted; underdevelopment or lack of plot skills role playing game; the external side of the interaction is of greater interest than the content; the child can understand and be aware of the emotional reactions of other people; the social behavior of children in this group is perceived by others worse than the behavior of people from the passive group. Domestic researchers (K.S. Lebedinskaya, O.S. Nikolskaya) highlight four groupschildren with childhood autism, who differ in the level of maladaptation, the degree of developmental distortion, the nature of autism and the possibility of socialization. Each of these groups is characterized by a certain level of ability to interact with the outside world and, corresponding to this level, forms of autostimulation and protection. Children firstgroups are characterized by detachment from the environment, second- her rejection, third- its replacement, fourth- overinhibition in social contacts. Foreign and domestic researchers consider the problem of social interaction from different positions. Very interesting is the “theory of consciousness” by U. Frith, which explains problems in the field of social interaction in children with childhood autism, first of all, by the inability to understand the emotions, intentions and thoughts of other people. According to U. Frith, autistic children have no or poorly developed “theory of consciousness”: they are not able to understand what is expressed by the gaze, facial expressions, and postures of other people. Autistic children are characterized by hyperrealism; they cannot understand that people's emotions and intentions are hidden behind literal perceptions. They have difficulty understanding the behavior, actions and actions of others. For this reason they are called "socially blind". Thus, U. Frith explains the shortcomings of social interaction primarily by cognitive impairment. According to U. Firth, deficits in social interaction in autism are largely associated with cognitive impairment. Domestic researchers associate the problem of social interaction to a greater extent with shortcomings in the affective sphere. According to V.V. Lebedinsky, K.S. Lebedinskaya, O.S. Nikolskaya at the basis of autistic dysontogenesis are severe disturbances in the functioning of the affective sphere. The authors describe the special pathological conditions in which the mental development of an autistic child occurs: a persistent combination of two factors - impaired activity and a decrease in the threshold of affective discomfort. This is manifested in disturbances in tone, weakness of motives and research activity, rapid fatigue, exhaustion and satiety in voluntary activities, and the predominance of negative sensations. In this regard, the mental system, which is formed in pathological conditions, solves, at the level possible for itself, the tasks of adaptation and self-regulation necessary for survival. The specificity of its functioning in autism is that the primary task is not the development active forms contact with the world, and means of protection from it, which manifest themselves in the form of pathological autostimulation and involve all mental functions. Thus, domestic authors associate the problem of socialization mainly with affective disorders. The described approaches can be called “polar”, since they consider the same problem from opposite points of view, highlighting different aspects of the same violation. However, research recent years showed that social interaction problems arise from a combination of two factors: emotional and cognitive. The most legitimate point of view is the point of view of J. Beyer, L. Gammeltoft, who believe that difficulties in the areas of social interaction and communication are explained by the immaturity of the internal tendency in autistic children to perceive the social aspect. According to their concept, the perception of the surrounding world and the organization of behavior in normally developing children is carried out within the framework of two aspects: social and material. They believe that during normal ontogenetic development, the information perceived by the child passes through two channels: one of them is responsible for the perception of information about the material world, and the other is responsible for processing information about the social world. As a result of these processes, children form a holistic picture of the perception of surrounding phenomena and events. In children with autism, information passes through only one channel - material. Children are able to establish cause-and-effect relationships through exploratory behavior and sensorimotor activity. They may retain the ability for cognitive-perceptual processing of specific information received through the material channel. As a result of this, they develop an understanding and awareness of the functions of objects in the material world. But along with this, autistic children have an unformed internal tendency to perceive the social aspect. It is difficult for them to understand the meaning and meaning of the social world - the world of “communication”. They do not explore themselves and those around them through imitation - the natural biological ability to engage in interaction and communication based on imitation. Due to these circumstances, an autistic child does not form an affective consonance with a loved one. They are characterized by an inability to process abstract information emotionally and empathically. Analysis of various approaches confirms the position of L.S. Vygotsky that children’s understanding of the world around them is associated with two factors: intellect and feelings. The affective and cognitive spheres are equally involved in processing information coming from the outside. The problem of imagination and flexibility of thinking in autistic children has been discussed in particular detail in foreign literature. According to V. Du ö y, imagination involves the assimilation of our impressions and the use of these impressions and objects to create meanings that are independent of the external world. M. Peter views imagination as the ability to explore and experiment with one's memories and the ability to combine ideas rationally and irrationally. Domestic authors define imagination as the mental process of forming new images by processing the material of perceptions and ideas obtained in previous experience. Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate a situation and solve problems without the direct intervention of practical actions. L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Rubinstein note that imagination plays a huge role in mental development person and performs the following functions: 1.Representation of reality in images, the ability to use them when solving certain problems; 2.Regulation of emotional states; 3.Participation in voluntary regulation cognitive processes and human states, in particular perception, memory, speech, emotions; 4.Formation of an internal action plan; 5.Planning and programming activities, drawing up such programs, assessing their correctness, and the implementation process. Early studies by L. Kanner suggested that the level of imagination of autistic children in some cases exceeds the abilities of children with a high level of intelligence. Only in the late 1970s - early 1980s, thanks to a number of studies by foreign authors, it became clear that children with autism have undeveloped imagination, or it is developed at a low level. Let us consider the main ontogenetic stages of imagination development in normal and autistic children. In the first months of life, the child perceives the world directly under the influence of the senses. As a result of this, the child forms the first internal images, which are an exact copy of objects in the surrounding world; those. the rudiments of the reproductive imagination are formed, which allows one to reproduce reality as it is. Such imagination is more like perception or memory than creativity. For many autistic children, their perception remains at the level of “photographic” impressions throughout their lives. At the age of nine months, normally developing children are able to experience mutual, divided attention; the child’s impressions become consonant with the impressions of an adult. As a result, the child’s object images change significantly. Events occurring at this age are interpreted in the light of interaction with an adult. At this stage of development, the child is able to correlate two object images simultaneously: his own and the image of an adult. In terms of the formation of object images, the child seems to move from the “mono” to “stereo” level. The child's mental image is supplemented by the adult's interpretation. The child understands that his own images and impressions are different from another person. A consonance is formed between the images and emotional impressions of the child and the adult. This level of perception is practically inaccessible to an autistic child. He is incapable of divided attention and “early dialogue.” At the age of 18 months, a normally developing child is able to create flexible mental images; he is able to imagine the world around him, different from the one he sees; those. The child develops a productive imagination, which is distinguished by the fact that in it reality is consciously constructed by a person, and not simply mechanically copied or recreated. This is reflected in the child's ability to engage in symbolic play. The child has the opportunity to modify the real world, i.e. imagination abilities are formed. Autistic children have impaired productive imagination; they are unable to form flexible images, or this process is very difficult. Foreign researchers are inclined to believe that problems in this area are expressed in the form of stereotypical behavior. M.A. Turner believes that children with autism experience an overwhelming tendency to repeat actions and thought processes in a stereotypical manner. In his opinion, they have impaired fluency of thought processes, in which normally developing children can spontaneously generate a series of responses to one stimulus. Thus, foreign studies link the stereotyping of autistic children with imagination disorders. Domestic researchers consider stereotypical behavior as a consequence of emotional disorders. The concept of imagination is related to the concept of “creativity”. Modern literature identifies the following main indicators of creativity in the process of activity: · Fluency of thinking - the ability to find many different solutions to one problem; · Flexibility of thinking - the ability to see an object from a new angle, discover its new use, expand its functional application in practice; · Originality - the ability to generate non-standard, unique ideas; · Elaboration (accuracy) - the ability to develop an idea in detail. According to L. Wing, autistic children show impairments in all indicators of creativity, especially flexibility of thinking. As a result, they find themselves unable to look at the current situation from a different perspective, to generate various creative ideas, the process of transferring developed skills to a new situation is difficult for them, and they are unable to create analogies and associations, including verbal ones. These specific features have a negative impact on the child’s behavior, which becomes stereotypical, with monotonous, repetitive actions. The problem of imagination in autistic children concerns, first of all, play activities, which are also characterized by stereotyping and the absence of symbolic play. Thus, in autism there are disturbances in behavior, social interaction, and communication caused by a combination of cognitive and emotional deficiencies. According to researchers, the “triad of disorders” manifests itself in the form of specific features of the play activity of children with autism, therefore it is necessary to consider the problem of the development of play activity in childhood autism. These features serve as confirmation that the child is not able to communicate due to a lack of understanding by those around him. It is worth noting another important deficiency in the communication of a child with autism. This shortcoming is the inability to dialogue. And, consequently, the difficulty in determining the communicative roles in it. When a dialogue does occur, the child finds it difficult to establish a relationship with the interlocutor. Regarding the topic of conversation during dialogue and its direction for the child, these phenomena often become incomprehensible and do not carry any meaning. Children with autism have impairments in nonverbal communication. Children with autism do not show sufficient interest in hugs and tactile contact, even in infancy. They clearly demonstrate disturbances in contact with their own mother through gaze. With autism, a child has limited ability to imitate the actions of an adult. The researchers focused on the fact that understanding facial expressions, facial expressions, gestures, and as a result of all this, expressing emotions and transmitting any information using non-verbal means becomes practically impossible for a child. According to many authors, in a child with autism one can notice disturbances in vocal manifestations expressed in whispered speech and peculiarities of intonation. As for the problems of organizing the space of the communication process, their manifestation occurs due to shortcomings in understanding the rules of social behavior, and problems of this nature are manifested in failure to maintain distance, lack of ability to dialogue face to face with a partner. In autism, social impairments are pronounced: inability to adequately respond to the emotions of others, poor expression of one’s own, minimal level of interaction with others. Many researchers, along with impairments in communication and socialization of children with autism, note cognitive deficiencies. Such shortcomings manifest themselves, first of all, in a lack of understanding of the meaning and functions of surrounding objects. In turn, it is the understanding of these meanings and functions that is the catalyst for normal speech development. Children with autism have the ability to use objects not for their intended purpose, namely to perform stereotypical actions with them, such as: boredom, tossing, transferring from hand to hand, spinning, arranging objects in a certain order, etc. Children with autism have difficulty grasping cause-and-effect relationships and do not understand them. That certain actions with objects can lead to the final result. At the same time, these violations are projected onto the formation of communication skills. An autistic person cannot understand. That speech utterances can lead to changes in the behavior of the interlocutor. Children with autism have limited abstraction abilities, which affects their understanding of the structure of language and other symbolic systems. Children have difficulties in understanding speech and using it purposefully, and difficulties in establishing a connection between an event and a word directly. It can also be noted that violations of the child’s cognitive sphere manifest themselves in the inability to perform symbolic play. Children with autism have difficulty transferring communication skills from one given situation to another. There are a significant number of methods that allow us to identify specific features of communicative and social behavior and assess the level of development of communicative and social skills of autistic children. A qualitative analysis of this group of techniques allows us to divide them conditionally into several subgroups: 1.
Diagnostic scales that allow you to identify autistic disorders, social, communication and behavioral deficiencies in a child.This group of techniques includes the diagnostic card developed by K.S. Lebedinskaya and O.S. Nikolskaya, which allows a detailed examination of a child of two years of age if he is suspected of having childhood autism. It is aimed at identifying features in the development of all areas of a child with childhood autism: vegetative-instinctive, affective, drives, communication, perception, motor skills, intellectual development, speech, gaming activities, social behavior skills, psychosomatic correlations. 2.
Adaptive behavior scales - standardized methods,designed to assess adaptive skills and identify the level of development of social, communication, motor skills, as well as self-care skills and behavioral characteristics of children with developmental disabilities. The most commonly used methods are: Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale; Assessment of children's adaptive behavior. 3.
Methods intended for assessing the level of development of children with autism and planning correctional and pedagogical interventions -Psychological and pedagogical profile. This group also includes methods aimed at identifying the level of development of the communication skills of children with autism and allowing one to outline directions, goals and objectives correctional work: Assessing social and communication skills in children with autism; A technique developed within the framework of the program “Teaching Spontaneous Communication of Autistic Children and Children with Developmental Disabilities.” 4.
Methods designed to assess the level of nonverbal communication in infants and young children.The Communicative and Symbolic Behavior Scale assesses communication and symbolic skills 8 -
24-month-old child, including gestural communication, vocalizations, interaction, affective signals in various communicative situations. The questionnaire, designed to diagnose autism in children aged 18 months, includes the sections: social interests, divided attention, gestural communication and play. In order to develop communication skills in children with autism, three main approaches are being developed in foreign special pedagogy and psychology: psychoanalytic, behavioristAnd psycholinguistic.
IN psychoanalytic approach, which dominated the 1950s and 1960s, the language of autistic children was seen as a means of expressing conflicts that psychoanalysts believed were the cause of their autistic symptoms. For example, L. Jackson viewed autism in general, and lack of response to social stimuli in particular, as a defense mechanism in response to what is perceived as extreme danger. Psychoanalytic approaches did not consider language as a goal of therapy. Analysis of the speech of autistic children was important in determining the nature of their internal conflicts. At the same time, the goal of therapy was to resolve these internal conflicts related to self-awareness. It was believed that as knowledge and ideas about oneself expanded, the child’s speech changed and became more adequate. Domestic scientists do not agree with this point of view and believe that targeted training is necessary when developing communication skills in autistic children. Behaviorist approachto the formation of communication skills in children with autism originated in the first half of the 1960s. Proponents of this approach made early efforts to develop speech and language skills in autistic children using operant conditioning techniques. Programs this direction began mainly with teaching the child to sit on a chair for a certain period of time, make eye contact according to instructions and imitate the movements of an adult. Then the child was taught to imitate individual sounds, words and understand the meaning of words: the child had to choose the appropriate object or picture in response to the teacher’s verbal instructions. After this, the child was taught to name objects, pictures, or their features in response to a verbal stimulus (for example, “What is this?” or “Where is the block?”). A child who had mastered these skills was taught to answer questions in the form of simple phrases (for example, “This is a ball” or “The cube is in the box”). In behaviorist programs, stimulus conditions, learning contexts, and prompts were developed in detail; great importance was given to reinforcement of correct answers. The earliest of these programs taught children to use relevant language concepts in the context of structured therapeutic sessions. At the same time, the issue of applying the acquired communication skills in Everyday life.autism pedagogical children The main problem was that children were not capable of spontaneous transfer and did not use the learned skills in natural settings to transfer information. This led to some changes in programs. More and more emphasis has been placed on the concept of "functionality" of communication skills in everyday life. In this regard, much attention began to be paid to the “natural consolidation” of the skill, which is very important when working with autistic children. To develop communication skills, supporters of the behaviorist direction recommend using a large number of varied tasks with the participation of several people. Particularly effective is the “accompanying learning” technique, which allows children to learn communication skills within naturally occurring situations. Thus, the educational process is based on the personal interests and needs of the child, which leads to increased learning efficiency. Despite the obvious advantages, accompanying learning has not been widely used in modern pedagogy and psychology. Another direction in the development of behaviorist approaches is training in the use of alternative communication systems: gestures, vocalizations, pictures, pictograms, written speech. The emergence of alternative communication systems was associated with the need to educate autistic children who could not master communication skills using the technique of “behaviorist modification.” Alternative means allow many non-verbal autistic children to acquire a specific set of communication skills. Very interesting is psycholinguistic approach, which has become widespread abroad. Its peculiarity is that researchers study the ontogenetic development of normal children and apply this knowledge when studying and teaching autistic children. They compare the sequence of acquisition of communication skills in normal conditions and in autism, and consider the relationship and relationship between the levels of linguistic, cognitive and social development of an autistic child. The earliest research in this area focused on the syntactic structure of the language of autistic children. Then interest increased in the study of semantic aspects, i.e. the meaning of speech units of communication. Most recent research has focused on the pragmatic aspects of language. Questions were examined about the ability of autistic children to use language according to its meaning in various social contexts. .3 Features of the development of play activity in ontogenesis in children with childhood autism
Most authors associate communication skills and the development of language ability of children with early childhood autism with a violation of the processes cognitive activity. The lack of development of symbolic play skills in an autistic person is a direct sign of communication disorders. If we rely on one of the well-known theories of J. Piaget, then we can say that it depends on the child’s ability to perceive and process information. The formation of his speech, and therefore his communicative ability, directly depends on the knowledge of the signs and properties of objects. It can also be noted. That the process of manipulating objects is closely related to the development of thinking (L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, V.I. Lubovsky) Researchers claim that there is a relationship between the development of gaming skills and communication skills. In this regard, it becomes necessary to consider the features of gaming activity. In the early stages of development, the main activity for a child is emotional interaction with adults. Based on this, the first object for play manipulation is the adult himself who is with the child. In the first six months of a child’s life, play represents a special type of communication for him, in which the child begins to use nonverbal means of communication. This indicates the manifestation of situational and personal communication. In the second half of the year, the child has a need to interact with an adult based on playful manipulations involving various objects. At the age of 1-3 years, object-manipulative activity becomes leading Researchers identify three phases of the formation of substantive activity I phase - free manipulation - the child performs an action with an object that is free in nature. II phase - functional actions - the child performs the action. Corresponding functions of the item. III phase - the child uses the object at will, while being aware of its function. (L.S. Vygodsky, D.B. Elkonin) Object-manipulative activities develop the cognitive sphere and orientation in space. In preschool age, the leader becomes role-playing game it is aimed at the personal development of the child, helping the child to master the features of interpersonal relationships. In the process of this type of games, children master the features of non-situational forms of communication by playing out situations of social interaction. In progress plot-role-playing In games, a child can take on the roles of adults and partially reproduce their actions with the help of substitute objects. If we consider the classifications of games, then for studying the social and communicative significance of the stages of development of gaming activity for a child, the most suitable classification is the classification of Western researchers. 1.Combination game-child explores the properties of objects. Items are not used for their intended purpose. The toys are placed inside each other, in one line, on top of each other. This type of play is typical for children aged 6 to 9 months. This type of games not only forms in the child an awareness of his own actions. 2.