Dyslexia, Autism and Language Processing

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Another study in the journal Brain used brain imaging to investigate another language problem many autistic children, Charlie included, have reversing pronouns. The Brain study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and found that the connections between the front and posterior parts of the brain in autistic individuals is affected. Says Science Daily.

The results revealed a significantly diminished synchronization in autism between a frontal area (the right anterior insula) and a posterior area (precuneus) during pronoun use in the autism group. The participants with autism also were slower and less accurate in their behavioral processing of the pronouns. In particular, the synchronization was lower in autistic participants’ brains between the right anterior insula and precuneus when answering a question that contained the pronoun “you,” querying something about the participant’s view.

“Shifting from one pronoun to another, depending on who the speaker is, constitutes a challenge not just for children with autism but also for adults with high-functioning autism, particularly when referring to one’s self,” [Marcel Just of Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI)] said. “The functional collaboration of two brain areas may play a critical role for perspective shifting by supporting an attention shift between oneself and others.

“Pronoun reversals also characterize an atypical understanding of the social world in autism. The ability to flexibly shift viewpoints is vital to social communication, so the autistic impairment affects not just language but social communication,” Just added.

The researchers also suggest that understanding of social interactions is affected — that is, when an autistic child’s response to “do you want something?” is “you want something,” the child is confused about who exactly is doing the wanting, with resulting further confusion about what to do.

After reading the Brain study, it occurred to me that not only does Charlie tend to leave out pronouns when he talks; we have a tendency to drop them when we speak to him and to rely on context to communicate. Both the Science study on dyslexia and Brain study on pronomial reversals in autism are reminders that, when people struggle to speak, it’s often due to how their brains are “wired” and that it would be well for the rest of us to listen with especial care not only to what they say, but to how we are communicating, too, and to make accommodations — far easier for me to change what I’m saying than it is for Charlie.

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alex l.

7:09AM PDT on Aug 8, 2011

i have dyslexia, and found little help in school for it. i managed to pull down straight A's but, it was harder than it looked. i am so glad that studies like this will help kids in the future - they need to be taught in a way that doesn't make them feel stupid - so often dyslexics are above average in intelligence, but are treated as if they are dumb - and that can encourage them to see dyslexia as a challenge, not a personal failure.

August 8
send a green star

Carole R.

6:41AM PDT on Aug 8, 2011

Thanks for the good information.

Teresa W.

4:41AM PDT on Aug 8, 2011

interesting

Mildred W.

4:37AM PDT on Aug 8, 2011

Every child is different, and really Drs havent not found the problems. Past on as problem child. Schools do not know how to work with children, passed on as a child with a learning problem. There is no special classes or teaches for theses children in small town, when you do call for the help it is fifty to hundred miles way in the larger cities.We have a grand child with autistic,she is very smart in what she wants to do. They do not fit in with other children,who do not have the so called problem.We see the day by day problem our daughter has with her.She has good days, but there are days you do not know what to do or say to her.God bless the parent with autistic child.

Past Member .

3:27PM PDT on Aug 5, 2011

Brava, Alison V., Brava!

August 5
send a green star

Akin A.

1:29PM PDT on Aug 5, 2011

Thanks for sharing

Fred K.

8:45PM PDT on Aug 4, 2011

I'm reminded of a sci fi story in which the autistic boy was 'plugged in' to the 'body' of an interplanetary exploration vehicle. The story shows a subject handicapped by his poor relationship to the earth and human society, and his exemplary performance when he was instead presented with a new world and a customised optimal body to explore it with. I prefer to consider such people 'specialists' rather than 'handicapped', if at all possible.