How does the process of learning language differ in children with autism compared to typically developing children?
In general, children with autism spectrum disorders tend to have relative strengths in rote memory co-occurring with difficulties in language processing and more abstract semantic (language-based) memory. This learning profile results in a relatively unique approach to learning language for many children. We have referred to their style of language learning as a “gestalt” style of language learning, in which they rely on immediate and delayed repetition or immediate and delayed echolalia (repeating words and sentences said to them) to communicate and to acquire language. In the past, behavior therapists viewed echolalia primarily as a “deviant” or socially undesirable characteristic of autism and attempted to extinguish echolalia through punishment procedures. Through a number of studies, we were able to demonstrate that echolalia served important communicative functions for children with autism spectrum disorders, and that it reflected their unique strategy for acquiring language that
