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Communication deficits in Asperger’s syndrome

Anita Bryńska

Affiliacja i adres do korespondencji
PSYCHIATR. PSYCHOL. KLIN. 2011, 11 (1), p. 46-50
Streszczenie

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by language and communication impairments, social impairments, and repetitive behaviours or restricted interests. Asperger syndrome (AS) included in ASD is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relatively good linguistic and cognitive development. However, the observed language abnormalities observed in the Asperger syndrome comprise: pragmatics (application of language in social context), semantics (the meaning of what is being said) and prosody (rhythm, intonation and modulation of speech). Communication deficits include difficulties with using spoken language and gestures, inability to initiate and sustain appropriate conversation, and use of inappropriate, repetitive language. Other aspects of language, such as phonology or syntax, will not always show significant impairments, or deficiencies may be observed only in some groups of patients. The difference between formal linguistic skills (with regard to morphologic, phonologic and syntactic functions) and semantic-pragmatic skills is considerable. Communication deficits are most probably the consequence of difficulties within the integration between word-pertaining semantic information and the knowledge about the world and earlier experiences which are crucial for giving a differentiated sense to interpreted communications. One of the possible causes of the described problems may be atypical semantic processing patterns observed in groups of patients with the AS.

Słowa kluczowe
autistic spectrum disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome, semantic-pragmatic deficits, communication deficits