Verbal Doesn't Mean What You Think it Means

5/4/2014

11 Comments

At least she can talk.

Is she verbal?

I thought autistic kids couldn't speak?

I don't mind the questions, I really don't. I just want to clarify a few things.

Verbal doesn't mean what you think it means.

Children with autism, Kate included, have deficits in communication regardless of their verbal abilities.

Diagnostically, there must be a communication deficit to be considered autistic.

Language and communication are two different things.

Highly verbal individuals with autism are still unreliable in terms of communication.

Non-verbal individuals with autism are unreliable in terms of communication.

Answering questions, having a conversation and making requests can be extremely difficult for individuals with autism.

Nuances of conversation, idioms, metaphors and body language can be confusing and frustrating.

Kate does hours of therapy every single day to work on communication and socialization (which is a form of communication) skills.

Kate will undergo a cognitive assessment this month. She will be given the non-verbal assessment because, even though she can talk and does talk, she does not efficiently communicate.

Does that make sense?

11 Comments

jenn ferron

5/4/2014 03:04:38 am

As a support worker what you said totally makes sense to me. I have worked with both "verbal" and "nonverbal" children with autism. Its like you said even if they have words, does not mean they can communicate fully or for a lack of a better term "correctly" . What is the most challenging for me is finding ways around that barrier to make both me and the child understand what needs or is desired to be said

kim

5/4/2014 04:43:12 am

It makes perfect sense to me...that's just like my daughter Gracie

Pam

5/4/2014 05:16:07 am

I love your column...every single time. :-)

Stephanie

5/4/2014 05:51:42 am

You said she is in therapy. Can I ask which therapies you think are working best? My 3 yr old daughter is autistic as well and struggles greatly with communication, but regular speech therapy does not seem to help at all.

Shanell Mouland

5/4/2014 05:55:50 am

Sure. She does a version of ABA that we can live with. We allow no discrete trials and very little table time. The speech therapy has been, by far, the most helpful and child-centred of all the therapies.

5/4/2014 05:56:57 am

Having said that, I know our speech therapist is amazing so we know that the person delivering the therapy is more important than the therapy itself in many ways.

Jasmine link

5/4/2014 06:55:42 am

Yes! I have a verbal 3 year old with Autism and he does have a hard time communicating or carrying on conversations. He'll talk forever about things he's interested in, but gets confused or just repeats when we talk about other things(or tells us to stop talking because it bothers him). This is so good and so true

Tawnya

5/12/2014 10:29:13 am

I have two ASD children, both *very* verbal, but with quite severe communication deficits. They weren't diagnosed until very recently (in their early teen years), and speech-language therapy has been the best help. Neither knows how to connect to others or carry on a reciprocal conversation--my daughter will talk endlessly about something specific of interest to her (like ice hockey stats or WWII battle strategies), and my son will just jump topics if he can't follow the conversation. I think this is why they were misdiagnosed for so long--they're so very verbal with expansive vocabularies, but can't *communicate*. :(

Alissa

5/16/2014 12:18:01 pm

Very we'll said.

Christina

2/7/2016 08:28:45 am

I guess I am feeling a little emotional today (must be one of those moments for me) because this brought a bittersweet tear to my eye. This goes hand in hand with your post on defending the diagnosis for me. I feel like crap because I hear the "at least he can talk" all the time. I am so grateful he has developed the ability to use some language. I truly am. But his ability to truly communicate is just not there. I get it. I can't explain it properly but I get it.

Lara

2/15/2016 01:22:42 pm

I totally get that. I've said to people how grateful I am my kid speaks at all---& I totally am. I waited for over 6 years to even have ANY sort of "conversation" with him---but yeah; to actually have any in depth conversation, & the struggle with "why" and "how" questions & abstract thinking is still a struggle for him. So he speaks & can talk the ear off a dead donkey, but he struggles to really carry on & sustain conversation with others & to spit his words out. He's going to be 10 next month.

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Verbal Doesn't Mean What You Think it Means

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