Autism and speech--how does this work?

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One thing I have never seen an explanation of (or at least if I did, in my hyperactive little brain it didn't register) is why it is that autism affects the speech of some. What is the mechanism that causes autism to interfere with the speech development of some individuals, or cause them to not speak? Understanding is an entirely different matter, so what I am asking about is, what is the cause of the different development in speech production?

In some cases, autistic people adopt different methods of communication where speech is not feasible. What makes these modes preferred, or serve the individual better?

I don't know if there's anyone here who can offer a firsthand perspective of this, as someone who does use an alternative to speech, or anyone whose children or family members may have explained this to them, but I was curious to know what the actual mechanisms of this were, and how they shape a person's adaptations and preferences.

(One thing I am doing in my writing is exploring an alien society that has a very different attitude towards sign language than ours--the use is far more widespread. This seemed like one possible area where sign language would be very common, and the society's prevalent knowledge of the language both in hearing/neurotypical populations and those who use the language as their first one would really change how that society works.)

It probably has to do with the individual's mode of thought. People think in different ways (I'm personally a largely verbal jack-of-all-trades, thinking in whatever's convenient at the time) and nonverbal thinkers have more difficulty with language. Auditory processing issues can't help.

Other methods probably help because they're easier to process, or more intuitive, or whatever.

I dunno, I guess I'm not really qualified to answer.

White matter damage in certain areas.

Whether a person is visual or verbal. I'm very verbose.

Stupid question here...white matter? I certainly use the expression "grey matter," but white?

(And God forbid we mention RED matter...but that's a whole other thread. Cookies to the many people who will undoubtedly get the reference. )

The Vulcans had it coming.

White matter, that stuff that allows bits of the brain to communicate with one another; there's some more areas affected with speech too, the so-called Broca's Area, which is in the left side of the brain most times. In theory, this should be damaged/different in individuals who have verbal delays.

The part for understanding speech is in the right.

This is why pragmatics, understanding the meaning of speech, is affected in AS, whereas semantics is also affected in autism (the left).

i'm fascinated by this question too. (in fact, i think i'm a little obsessive about it since examining my own auditory processing disorder, and also learning of someone who was "non-verbal" for most of her life, but can now use a keyboard to communicate. so the differences between "verbal" and "non-verbal" may be not so cut and dried as i once thought.)

i sometimes wonder if it's a "processing glitch," just as some aspects of auditory processing disorder can be seen in this way. i wish i had the all the neurology down, but i don't. but i think sometimes, as in apd, the fragments of information are there, but the lobes of the brain responsible for putting them together as a whole can't communicate them properly.

for instance: i have language. i'm verbal and hyperlexic. but i can't digest certain kinds of information if conveyed verbally. i can digest them if i see them in written form.

i think some---who can, say, write for instance, and who can vocalize but not in words also have a "wiring" or transmission difficulty between lobes of the brain. they have all the pieces necessary to verbalize in words, but for some reason, the pieces won't come together into a whole.

this is all speculation, and my understanding of "brain wiring" is vague, at best. but on an intuitive level, this is how it "feels" to me when i have fragments of information that i can't process into a whole. (ex: when i can't understand what someone is saying to me---but would process it well if it were written.)

i hope this makes sense.

Something to add:

A psycho recently said my nephew actually has it harder than a deaf person [his age] in communicating his thoughts across; he has an ASD and he's nearly 6 (speech delayed), but he is completely verbal now, just a little slow with expressive speech; his receptive speech, what he understands, is fine.

That's amazing, really.

It's always been my understanding that our brains are wired differently. Now if this rewiring can affect the centers of emotion and reason then why couldn't it affect the areas concerning speech?

Vanilla_Slice

Wired differently is the nice way of saying it, really.

"We" supposedly have less white matter than "normal" people, no matter the ASD.

I personally prefer reading/writing. I have a bit of trouble with speech. It's like sometimes I can't get it to come out.

Sign language is full blown language. There are many sign languages. They have their own grammar and all the components of language. At least in NTs they use the same neurological processes, or at least that was the current belief when I was studying Linguistics. My grammar prof was studying sign language in Mexico.

There are also versions of spoken language that use sign and are useed to communicate with the hearing in their own language via signs. Sign English and Anslang (American Sign Language) are two distinct languages.

There are different mechanisms in the brain that facilitate Language. Dandy knows a lot about that stuff.

There are also different kinds of language learning. There is receptive, the ability to understand language, and then, what's it called? Something that is the ability to communicate language.

Some people have the brain parts working just fine to do language but can't hear, or can't control the muscles necessary for speech well enough to speak.

My son didn't speak until he was 5, for no reason we can figure. He rapidly developed normal speech when he was ready and currently does not appear to have an ASD, though he was at one time dx'd as PDD-NOS. His brothers both have AS. He has a lot of other unusual neurologically linked behavior and although we haven't found a label for him he's definitely not NT.

There are a lot of things that derail the spoken language process, and even for people in the Spectrum it isn't always the same issue. I think it may sometimes come from perceptual issues. I know my eldest Aspie son has pretty severe visual stuff going on and if he had the same level of sensory issues auditorily he might not be able to speak through all the "noise" and interferance. He might have a brain capable of it, but that is overwhelmed with other data that prevents it from happening.

Interesting stuff. I've got more questions than answers.

My little guy was like that. By 6.5 there was no sign of a speech problem. He might not be the clearest kid his age, but he's completely normal verbally. He has writing skills in the 99.9percentile on top quality tests. His receptive skills were always fine, but he just couldn't speak in a way anybody understood.

I know my mom is of the belief that I didn't hear a proper sentence until I learned to read. My grammar didn't develop the way it should have. But once I started seeing things in writing, it made sense. I STILL think first in writing. Now this is due to ADHD, so I just imagine my wild little brain was plain scattered, paying attention to anything and everything.

Regarding the comment about sign language--absolutely it's a full-fledged language. In a story for that same universe (science fiction), a group of soldiers encounters someone who is using sign language to communicate, and I had the medic among them state that he could not make the distinction, with his scanners, as to whether this person hypothetically COULD speak or not, because the same centers of the brain were being activated by his signing.

And Daniel--I KNEW someone would get the red matter comment!

I was diagnosed autistic when I was little, because apparently I was non verbal. I do remember going nonverbal again in the months just before my eleven plus. (No wonder I failed the bloody thing.) Apparently that bout "only lasted a term or two" (according to my Dad, who doesn't believe in such things as autism, no matter who diagnoses it in his daughter or grandson.)

One thing I do know is that I used to imagine a scroll with words in front of me, and I'd read the words of the scroll when I was talking. I remember once going apoplectic, because in my mind I had got to "end of chapter" when my Dad burst in to tell me off, and I literally couldn't speak because my narrative was mucked up.

Even now when I get messed up with stress, I imagine dialogue, or see it, like an autocue, and read off it. Maybe this is something to do with it.

I've asked my son, who was also a late speaker, but did use his own invented sign language, then spoken language what he's thinking when he's thinking without language.

"I'm thinking bigger, words are small and I can't squeeze into them." That's my favourite quote of his on the subject. He was seven when he said that. He then said bugger all for the next two days...

My little guy who spoke late comes out very ordinary, above average but nothing extraordinary on the IQ, but then demonstrates precotious ability on other kinds of tests. I believe that the kind of thinking the IQ tests is more right brained so people who are divergent can have this kind of pattern because they are more creative/left brained.

Still, my little guy has really strong right brain function in some areas. His word aquisition is relatively weak, but grammar, writing ability, reading comprehension, math scores etc are really strong. His computation skills are relatively low (very high, just not precotious like everything except for word aquisition).

About all the Psych could say about it is that he is uniqe and not NT. He may not be using the usual parts of his brain to do the usual things and seems to be wired in some unusual way.

Someone at the Stanford Math Distance program for gifted kids said they see a lot of their adult students in the math programs who didn't speak until late.

I don't know what it means, but it's interesting. He's wonderful just as he is, I'm just really curious about it.