Autism and Communication
It was the great American Financer, Bernard Baruch that said
"Feelings are 55% body language, 38% tone and 7% words" in other
words, its not just what you say but the way that you say it. On
the other hand, only the words are required for actual
communication and the body language and tone are the social
aspects that help people to understand a great deal more about
what the words mean.
One of the issues with Autism or Asperger Syndrome is that there
are distinct difficulties in communication that can occur on all
three of these levels. It is well known that people have
described communicating with autistic people as difficult
thinking that they are 'nerdy' or 'weird'.
If you look at communication as purely words and that the body
language and tone are social aspects then quite often it is not
the communication that is a problem.
Autistic people often have difficulties with social
understanding and as children become older the shift towards the
social part of communication becomes greater. When communication
does becomes 93% social then if they are not understood they
often feel more comfortable to avoid communication all together
because it becomes too difficult. Hans Asperger himself was
described by others as 'remote' in that he distanced himself
away from others.
For autistic people that cannot produce the words there are a
number of therapies or treatments such as music therapy or the
controversial facilitated communication. These treatments (not
cures) help people to communicate through a different medium.
Other autistic children may communicate with words but lack
understanding or the ability to recognise the social side of
communication (body language and tone). But also they themselves
may not be communicating with their body and tone. Their body
language can be awkward or uncomfortable, with eye gaze and an
apparent lack of engagement.
The speech can be monotone or non-emotional and the volume may
be loud or not fitting to the situation. But also the word
structure may not be clear, the language can be literal, there
may be interruptions and the subject may become confused which
is likely to be a reflection of how confusing certain things are
to them.
There are other therapies that help them understand concepts
such as recognising emotions. Picture or art therapy is useful
to help give visual guides to things they will see in
communications. Music therapy is sometimes used to help
understand the back and forth of conversation.
And speech therapy is a commonly used therapy to help develop
the muscles in the mouth to help with pronunciation and
articulation.
So while communication may conventionally be on these three
levels of body language, tone and words, there are many other
ways to communicate and many people will tell you that
communicating with autistic children on their level is very
rewarding because they are all geniuses in their own right that
have a lot to talk about.