spoken language - social communication YES!
The hardest part for children on the autism spectrum are IDIOMS have you noticed?
I was watching Racing Stripes with my daughter and in the middle of the movie she got up and exclaimed, "I don't know what they are saying!"
I was puzzled and my spouse realized that she couldn't understand it because it was filled, line after line, with idioms. That's like talking in code to children who are extremely 100% literal.
They are just "miswired" that's all...I have always known there was something going on in my daughters brain, but the look in her eyes always told me the connections just weren't matching up. The blue and red wire got mixed up type of a deal.
That is why sometimes children get misdiagnosed a lot too. They gave my daughter an IQ test in kindergarten and it showed her being severely MR --- they KNEW she wasn't MR so they gave her another test that took out the language component and she jumped up to the average range.
Language - makes that much of a difference though.
Melanie
Do all or most kids on the spectrum (other than aspergers) have trouble understanding spoken language? Or is it one of those things like some kids toe-walk and others don't?
And what is going on in the brain that makes our kids avoid eye contact?
My daughter can understand a lot of what is said to her. BUt she can't keep her eyes on anything for very long. I was watching her color today and noticed she won't even stay looking at the paper while she colors. SHe just looks at everything around her while she scribbles with the crayon and from time to time looks back down at her paper.
she can't express herself well. Has most trouble with that.
I'm not certain but I think it is a little of both. I think most do have trouble with receptive language but I think it is to varying degrees. My son was quite delayed but once I had interventions going on and I was learning the receptive kicked in.
The way I understand the eye contact thing is that it is sensory overload. To look at another person while communicating is a lot. And, as with other social cues, they just don't get it. So with Paul in the beginning to teach him eye contact meant that he would get in your face eyeball to eyeball or not look at all. Eventually (we're talking years here) that turned into making eye contact naturally as long as his sensory needs were met. It's my first clue that all is not right with the world when his eye contact goes on the blink. haha.
pat