For many children with Asperger’s syndrome and nonverbal learning disabilities, referred to as NLD, the social aspects of language can pose the greatest difficulties, said Elsa Abele to a group of parents at the Bromfield School on May 10.
Abele, a specialist in childhood language disorders, spoke to the parents about teaching social communication skills to children with Asperger’s syndrome and NLD.
The children may have excellent verbal skills for acquiring information and talking with adults, Abele explained, but they often lack the language skills for interacting with other children socially.
The goal of her approach, which she calls social pragmatics, is not to turn all students into “social butterflies,” Abele says.
“What we are working toward is just social adequacy, so that these kids can use what are sometimes enormous other gifts,” she said. “We need them.”
Abele cited research done at the Yale Child Study Center since the 1990s, indicating that the social problems of children with Asperger’s and NLD are not behavioral disorders, but result from neurological differences. Children with those differences do not automatically pick up the social cues and habits that come easily to others.
Abele quoted a man with Asperger’s as saying, “People who understand the things that I don’t understand, don’t understand how anyone can not understand them!”
Since the 1990s, Abele and others in the field have been developing ways to teach these social skills explicitly, with step-by-step instructions. For example, one problematical situation for many of Abele’s students is how to enter an on-going conversation.
Abele and her associates broke the process down into steps: (1) Walk up to the group. (2) Keep quiet and listen. (3) Say something about the topic the group is discussing. (4) When that topic ends, suggest a new topic—but not your own special area of expertise or interest.
Abele noted that the casual conversation that “neuro-typicals” (people without language disorders) can do on autopilot takes planning and effort for people on the autism spectrum. She compared the process to the kind of careful, conscious language that most people use when trying to avoid a fight or when making an important presentation to the boss.
“It’s very tiring!” she said, pointing out that students may be worn out by lunchtime from the extra effort.
Only 7 percent of communication is conveyed by words, according to Abele. Another 23 percent of the meaning is conveyed by sound variation such as intonation, volume, and pitch, all difficult areas for people with language disorders. And a whopping 70 percent of communication comes through body language, such as gestures, eye contact, posture, and more. Again, those are cues that people with language disorders have trouble either understanding or using.
Abele had earlier spent two full days in Harvard, working with both special education teachers and classroom teachers at Bromfield and Hildreth Elementary School.
In response to a question from the audience, Abele recommended the book “Quirky Kids,” by Perri Klass and Eileen Costello, and also the website socialthinking.org as resources for parents.
