Language Deficiency and Autism Spectrum Disorder

The researcher defines autism as a neurodevelopmental condition in a quick introduction to the subject. Impaired social contact, verbal and nonverbal communication, and limited behaviors all contribute to the illness. Previous study has revealed that autism is an illness that has harmed a big number of youngsters all over the world. Autism is thought to be caused mostly by genetic and environmental factors (Schultz et al., 2010). In some circumstances, however, rubella infections acquired during pregnancy are also a cause of autism. The study will focus on how autism leads to developmental disability, notably language impairment, in this publication.  The paper is also going to study factor leading to language deficiency in individuals with autism and whether there are remedies to the language deficiency in autism

How autism leads to language developmental impairment

According to Luyster et al. (2008), early recognition of risks and prognostic indicators is essential for diagnosis and intervention of children with autism spectrum disorder. A mass of evidence has indicated that functional and developmental outcomes in children are determined by acquiring early language (Schultz et al., 2010). Identification of some benchmarks as inductive of later outcomes including useful language by age of five has been proved by several studies. According to Rutter (2005), the use of language by age of 5 years indicated and marked the different future general adaptive and social outcomes.

More social children who require limited residential support services are said to have a useful speech by age of five years (Robinson et al., 2009). In predicting developmental outcomes in children, it is advisable to note the age of his or her first word and the age of the first phrase. In most cases, it is always important to learn and understand language utility as prognostic indicators. This is due to the fact that parents readily report them and screened by practitioners. The onset of first words as an example of expressive language is often the first parental concern reported towards a later diagnosed child (Stone et al., 1999). Therefore, the American Academy of Pediatrics has advocated for the use of standardized instruments in screening for delays in development using screeners like Ages and Stages. Therefore, what are the implications of autism in language development?

Previous research came to learn that children with autism syndrome disorder tend to have a slow language growth rate and development unlike typically developing children (Schultz et al., 2010). The slow rate of learning has affected their potential ability to learn from and adopt the new environment. Children with autism syndrome disorder face the risk of retrospective recall of language development which has always been reported by parents about greater language delays as the children grow old. In the study, it was revealed that level of ability and rates of change for language, adoptive, nonverbal and cognition skills are predicted by the ages of the language milestone.

Autism spectrum disorder creates complications in the brain development which may eventually lead to a prolonged delay development of language, social delays, unclear speech patterns and even intellectual functions of the brain. The individuals with autism often experience a deficit in communication and social life although the severity of autism differs in one way or the other. The study shows that about sixty percent verbal children with autism disorder experience language impairment (Rice et al., 2009). Autistic children with higher brain functioning are said to only have the deficiency in pragmatic.

Causes and impacts of language deficiency in individuals with autism

According to the past studies, the analysis indicates that different language impairments are general characteristics of individuals with verbal autistic. An example of the impairment is Pragmatic Language Disorder that contributes a lot of complications to the autistic individuals. The Pragmatic Language disorders are characteristics of deficiency in comprehension, more specifically, a slow understanding metaphors, irony or jokes. The deficit in comprehension also involves poor commands of indirect speech acts like questions. It also involves presupposition difficulties together with other conversational conventions. Conversational conventions comprise of politeness, formality level and turn-taking. Impairment in the production of speech such as personal pronouns reversal, the misuse of prepositions and repetition of other people’s utterances are also linked to Pragmatic (Robinson et al., 2009).

Language Disorder

Analysing the verbal skills of individuals with autism have remained to be quite challenging for a long period of time. The challenge arises due to the fact that individuals with autism disorder experience severe impairment in communication thus making them reluctant to speak on most occasions. Due to that fact, only a few studies have indulged in the aspect of the autistic speech on non-pragmatic though other languages are also affected. In line with that, individuals with autism have been identified to have the skill that is phonologically impaired. In most cases, individuals with autism never have intonation in their speech thus making be referred to as monotonous (Cox et al., 1999). The problem of morphological marking of infinite verbs has also been identified among others. The morphological problems include, past tense morpheme omission in the sentence. In addition, some studies have reported that the individuals with autism experience the problem of parsing of subordinate clauses which follows the cognition verbs. The verbs of cognition include, thing, know, guess and may which may also have difficulties in understanding some complex questions.

Causes and prevention of autism

So far, doctors do not understand specifically what causes autism or its origin. On the other hand, they tend to have a rough idea and believe that autism is brought about by individual’s gene at birth (Schultz et al., 2010).The doctors in limited cases tend to argue that a baby is in a position of being conceived with the birth effects if the mother of the baby could have been exposed to various chemicals during the pregnancy period. The positive part of it all is that the doctor is in a position to find out if the baby will be a victim of autism or not during pregnancy. The previous research done indicates that it is impossible to prevent having a child with autism syndrome disorder yet a pregnant mother is capable of reducing some risks of a baby acquiring the disorder if she embraces the below lifestyle changes.

Maintain a healthy life

Maintaining a healthy life is a vital and most important aspect to be considered mostly by the pregnant diseases. A mother who embraces and lives a healthy life will be in a position to reduce the chances of an infant contracting unknown disease prior to his or her birth. Therefore, maintaining a healthy life involves check-ups regularly to establish if there could be an issue of health that requires doctor’s attention and feeding in a well-balanced diet. In addition, a pregnant mother should be in a position to exercise thoroughly to maintain fitness during her pregnancy period (Rice et al., 2009). A pregnant mother should also be in a position to consume vitamins together with the supplements recommended by her nurse to ensure that she offers a good parental care.

Avoid taking drugs during pregnancy

A pregnant woman who expects to give birth to a healthy baby should consider it to be of great importance to avoid using drugs during the pregnancy period. Both illegal and legal drugs have got their side effects to a mother when she uses them during her period of pregnancy. For instance, consumption of illegal drugs such as bhang, cocaine and alcohol among others contributes to the lasting and perennial effects on the unborn children. Previous studies indicate that consumption of both legal and illegal drugs in a pregnancy period contributes a lot of impacts to the foetus directly (Rice et al., 2009). The researchers argue that when a mother engages in smoking, drinking alcohol or caffeine ingestion, the foetus also does so through the mother. That eventually exposes the foetus or unborn baby to a lot of health risks. Some of the effects that accrue from the consumption of drugs include heart attack, strokes and heart attacks among others. These effects brought by drugs have the possibility of passing through the mother to the unborn child hence putting the life of the child to a life-threatening health problem.

The past research has also revealed that consumption of drugs during pregnancy accelerates the chances of birth defects like autism, babies who are underweight, babies who are premature and even stillbirths. Behaviour problems in early childhood have also been on the rise in children born out of drug-addicted mothers (Rice, et al., 2009). It is argued that the children who are born to the women consuming drugs in their pregnancy can end up giving birth to children with affected memory and poor attentiveness. Brain structure change can also be identified in children born to women who consume cocaine.

The structure change in such children has the capability to persist up to the early adolescence. Research indicates that consumption of cocaine has got an immediate effect on the user but on the other hand, it might contribute to a permanent damage on the foetus. This may eventually lead to the damage the child’s mental capacity to think of other physical and mental problems. Pregnant women are also prohibited from just taking drugs without doctor’s prescription in case of any sign of illness. Different narcotic drugs react differently in people’s bodies and more so during pregnancy (Robinson et al., 2009). Therefore, before any pregnant woman takes a drug, it is advisable that she consults a doctor or a nurse for the same.

Seek treatment for existing health conditions

Most of the times pregnant women tend to get ill but unfortunately, they assume the illness or they go buying medicines without identifying what the illness is all about. Through this, they end up administering wrong drugs for the wrong disease which in turn might end up causing a lot of complications to themselves and even the foetus (Stone et al., 1999). In such a case, the unborn child gets exposed to the risks of acquiring complications such as mental damages arising from the drugs. The mental damages that arise from the wrong drugs may end up causing autism. To prevent this from occurring, it is always advisable for a pregnant woman to seek medical attention from a trained and specialized doctor or nurse in case of any illness.

Get vaccinated

Vaccination is an important preventive measure that protects the children against infections. It is always advisable for women to go for pre-pregnancy vaccination and post pregnancy vaccination. Pre-pregnancy vaccinations such as administration of the vaccine for measles should be given to women in the prevention of serious birth effects (Stone et al., 1999). Vaccination during pregnancy is also advisable as it helps to protect the unborn child from diseases that may cause mental damages to them.

Conclusion

Autism is a serious disorder that affects many individuals’ language and ability to speak. As much as the research has not identified any possible cure for the disorder, a number of remedies in the research can be implemented to prevent children from being affected by autism. It is upon the parents especially the women to ensure that their unborn babies have been protected from acquiring the disorder. Pregnant women should also abstain from consuming drugs that may cause mental problems to their unborn babies.

References

Cox, A., Klein, K., Charman, T., Baird, G., Baron-Cohen, S., Swettenham, J., & Wheelwright, S. (1999). Autism spectrum disorders at 20 and 42 months of age: Stability of clinical and ADI-R diagnosis. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40(5), 719-732.

Luyster, R. J., Kadlec, M. B., Carter, A., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2008). Language assessment and development in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 38(8), 1426-1438.

Rice, C. (2009). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders-Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network. New York, NY: Routledge.

Robinson, S., Goddard, L., Dritschel, B., Wisley, M., & Howlin, P. (2009). Executive functions in children with autism spectrum disorders. Brain and Cognition, 71(3), 362-368.

Schultz, R. T., Gauthier, I., Klin, A., Fulbright, R. K., Anderson, A. W., Volkmar, F., & Gore, J. C. (2010). Abnormal ventral temporal cortical activity during face discrimination among individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome. Archives of general P Rutter, M. (2005). The incidence of autism spectrum disorders: changes over time and their meaning. Acta paediatrica, 94(1), 2-15. Psychiatry, 57(4), 331-340.

Stone, W. L., Lee, E. B., Ashford, L., Brissie, J., Hepburn, S. L., Coonrod, E. E., & Weiss, B. H. (1999). Can autism be diagnosed accurately in children under 3 years? The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40(2), 219-226.