Hello, I'm Patty Prelock.
I'm the Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for
the University of Vermont and today I'm happy to be talking to
you about understanding and assessing language and
communication in children with an autism spectrum disorder.
I want to do a brief description of my disclosure.
I have written books on autism and
other neurodevelopmental disabilities and I receive royalties from the sale of those books.
I also receive royalties from the sale of the Theory of Mind Inventory-2.
In addition, I do receive honoraria for presenting on autism and
other language disorders and I'm receiving an honorarium for this presentation.
Although impairment in communication is one of
the core deficit areas historically associated with autism in the DSM-4,
communication impairment has been realigned in the DSM-5.
We are going to talk about four major objectives so that you can understand how
communication still fits in our assessment and understanding of children with autism.
The first objective is really to explain the role of the theory of mind
in understanding language and communication impairments in children with autism.
I want to be able to tell you a little bit about
the early communication challenges for children with autism.
We're then going to identify some of the pragmatic and narrative language challenges that
interfere with the ability of verbal children with autism to engage in conversation.
Finally, we'll talk about the use of examining communication profiles to assess
the strengths and challenges of children with autism spectrum disorders.