Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:59:13.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

LANGUAGE, AUTISM, AND CHILDHOOD: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

Olga Solomon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reviews recent ethnographic studies on how children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) use language in their everyday lives: how they are socialized into sociocultural competence, how they participate in the social world as members of families and communities, how they draw on structural properties of social interaction to participate in everyday talk, and to what extent the European American habitus of child-directed communication supports or hinders their communicative development. Other studies reviewed in this article examine language use in autism in relation to narrative, question–answer sequences, bilingualism, accountability and morality, and politeness. The studies frame autism more ethno-methodologically than clinically and capture how children with ASD actively participate in the co-construction of their life worlds through communication with others. This perspective makes visible aspects of language use and everyday experiences of children with ASD and their families that are usually obscured in other theoretical approaches to autism. Through participant observation and extensive naturalistic data collection involving video and audio recording of everyday interaction, ethnographic studies reviewed in this article shed light on patterns of language use and link these patterns to particular cultural practices, making language of children with autism more intelligible and interpretable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 28 , March 2008 , pp. 150 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2005). To be or not to be bilingual: Autistic children from multilingual families. In Cohen, J., McAlister, K. T., Rolstad, K., & MacSwan, J. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (pp. 1225–1234). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, E. (2002). Becoming a speaker of culture. In Kramsch, C. (Ed.), Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives (pp. 99–119). New York: Continuum Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Solomon, O. (2004). Practical logic and autism. In Edgerton, R. & Casey, C. (Eds.), A companion to psychological anthropology: Modernity and psychocultural change, pp. 140–167. Oxford, England: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., Solomon, O., & Sterponi, L. (2005). Limitations and transformations of habitus in child-directed communication. Discourse Studies, Special Issue: Theories and Models of Language, Interaction and Culture, 7 (4–5), 547–584.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., Kremer-Sadlik, T., Sirota, K., & Solomon, O. (2004). Autism and the social world: An anthropological perspective. Discourse Studies, 6 (2), 147–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, O. (2004). Narrative introductions: Discourse competence of children with autistic spectrum disorders. Discourse Studies, 6 (2), 253–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

OTHER REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. M., & Heritage, J. (Eds.). (1984). Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). The autistic child's theory of mind: A case of specific developmental delay. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 285–297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Theory of mind and autism: A fifteen-year review. In Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, S., Campbell, R., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Grant, J., & Walker, J. (1995). Are children with autism blind to the mentalistic significance of the eyes? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13 (4), 379–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1990a). In other words: Essays towards a reflexive sociology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1990b). The logic of practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Burack, J. A., Charman, T., Yirmiya, N., & Zelazo, P. (2001). Development and autism: Messages from developmental psychopathology. In Burack, J. A., Charman, T., Yirmiya, N., & Zelazo, P. (Eds.), The development of autism: Perspectives from theory and research (pp. 3–15). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Time trends in reported diagnoses of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders: A Danish cohort study. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 161, 193–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fombonne, E. (2003). The prevalence of autism. Journal of American Medical Association, 289, 87–89.Google Scholar
Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford, England: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Frith, U., Happé, F., & Siddons, F. (1994) Autism and theory of mind in everyday life. Social Development, 3 (2), 108–124.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Happé, F. (1994). An advanced test of theory of mind: Understanding of story characters' thoughts and feelings by able autistic, mentally handicapped, and normal children and adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 129–154.Google Scholar
Happé, F. G. E. (1996). Studying weak central coherence at low levels: Children with autism do not succumb to visual illusions: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 873–877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Happé, F. (2003). Theory of mind and the self. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1001, 134–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2001). How children with autism and Asperger syndrome respond to questions: An ethnographic study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2004). How children with autism and Asperger syndrome respond to questions: A “naturalistic” theory of mind task. Discourse Studies 6 (2), 185–206.Google Scholar
Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2005). To be or not to be bilingual: Autistic children from multilingual families. In Cohen, J., McAlister, K. T., Rolstad, K., & MacSwan, J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (pp. 1225–1234). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Krug, D. A., Arick, J. R., & Almond, P. J. (1978). Autism screening instrument for education and planning. Portland, OR: ASIEP Educational.Google Scholar
Le Couteur, A., Rutter, M., Lord, C., Rios, P., Robertson, S., Holdgrafer, M., et al. (1989). Autism diagnostic interview: A standardized investigator-based instrument. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19, 363–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lord, C., & Spence, S. (2006). Autism spectrum disorders: Phenotype and diagnosis. In Moldin, S. O. & Rubenstein, J. L. R. (Eds.), Understanding autism: From basic neuroscience to treatment (pp. 1–23). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Micali, N., Chakrabarti, S., & Fombonne, E. (2004). The broad autism phenotype: Findings from an epidemiological survey. Autism, 8 (1), 21–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muhle, R., Trencoste, S. V., & Rapin, I. (2004). The genetics of autism. Pediatrics, 113 (5), 472–486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ochs, E. (1982). Talking to children in western Samoa. Language in Society, 11, 77–104.Google Scholar
Ochs, E. (1988). Culture and language development: Language acquisition and language socialization in a Samoan village. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, E. (2002). Becoming a speaker of culture. In Kramsch, C. (Ed.), Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives (pp. 99–119). New York: Continuum Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories. In Shweder, R. A. & LeVine, R. A. (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 276–320). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Solomon, O. (2004). Practical logic and autism. In Edgerton, R. & Casey, C. (Eds.), A companion to psychological anthropology: Modernity and psychocultural change. Oxford, England: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., Solomon, O., & Sterponi, L. (2005). Limitations and transformations of habitus in child-directed communication. Discourse Studies, Special Issue: Theories and Models of Language, Interaction and Culture, 7 (4–5), 547–584.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., Kremer-Sadlik, T., Sirota, K., & Solomon, O. (2004). Autism and the social world: An anthropological perspective. Discourse Studies 6 (2), 147–183.Google Scholar
Plaisted, K. C. (2000). Aspects of autism that theory of mind cannot explain. In Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., Cohen, D. (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism and developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 222–250). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ramachandran, V. S., & Oberman, L. M. (2006). Broken mirrors: A theory of autism. Scientific American, Special Issue: Neuroscience, 63–69.Google Scholar
Sacks, O. (1995). An anthropologist on Mars. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, B. (1990). The give and take of everyday life: Language socialization of Kaluli children. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, B., & Ochs, E. (1986). Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology, 15, 163–191.Google Scholar
Shah, A., & Frith, U. (1993). Why do autistic individuals show superior performance on the block design task? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34 (8), 1351–1364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sirota, K. G. (2004). Positive politeness as discourse process: Politeness practices of high functioning children with autism and Asperger syndrome. Discourse Studies, 6 (2), 229–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, O. (2004). Narrative introductions: Discourse competence of children with autistic spectrum disorders. Discourse Studies, 6 (2), 253–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterponi, L. (2004). Construction of rules, accountability and normal identity by high-functioning children with autism. Discourse Studies, 6 (2), 207–228.Google Scholar
Toppelberg, C. O., Snow, C. E., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (1999). Severe Developmental Disorders and Bilingualism. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38 (9), 1197–1199.Google ScholarPubMed
Walenski, M., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Ullman, M. T. (2006). Language in autism. In Moldin, S. O. & Rubenstein, J. L. R. (Eds.), Understanding autism: From basic neuroscience to treatment (pp. 175–203). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1992). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (3rd ed.). London: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical investigations. Oxford, England: Blackwell.Google Scholar