Project description

The language development sequence is generally atypical in autism. It is marked by a period of often little communicative language development during the 2nd and 3rd year of life, the period when most of the autistic signs become noticeable. Many children with autism will go on to develop adequate language, but some appear to use atypical strategies to extract and acquire language. Our goal is to understand these non-interactional learning strategies and to determine whether the nature of autistic behaviors may contribute to language development in these children. Improving our understanding of the mechanics of language acquisition in autism is a must if we are to stem the stagnation in the development of new early language intervention strategies. A better understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the condition of autism, particularly with respect to language and communication, is one avenue that could break the impasse of diagnostic heterogeneity.