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Editor: Adam Feinstein, email editor@lookingupautism.org
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LOOKING UP
THE 40-PAGE MONTHLY INTERNATIONAL
AUTISM NEWSLETTER
We have access to the most up-to-date material in more than a dozen languages concerning possible causes and treatments of autism, together with the latest educational approaches. We publish articles relating to autism in the family, school and further education, employment, film and the other arts, politics, sport and society.
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Here are the first few paragraphs of one of the selected articles currently available online.
From Volume 3 Number 6
Dr TONY
ATTWOOD, a clinical psychologist based in Queensland, Australia, is
widely ackowledged
to be the world’s leading expert on Asperger’s syndrome Adam
Feinstein spoke to him in Melbourne
ADAM
FEINSTEIN: Asperger’s syndrome has been
recognised only relatively recently as a specific disorder. What do you
think
have been the major advances in our understanding of the condition over
the
past 30 years since Hans Asperger’s 1944 paper was translated into
English?
TONY
ATTWOOD: I think the main advances have come not from the research
literature
but from conversations and discussions with those who have Asperger’s
syndrome,
by reading not the scientific textbooks but their autobiographies. My
greatest
knowledge of Asperger’s has come from those who have it. Other great
advances
are the recognition of the challenges they face, and some way of
helping them
to cope. What may also be occurring is a change in attitude towards
these
attitudes and, I hope, a greater emphasis on their talents rather than
their
deficits.
ADAM
FEINSTEIN It used to be thought that
individuals with Asperger’s syndrome had a normal command of language
and that
this, indeed, was one of the characteristics which distinguished
Asperger’s
from autism. We now know that the language used by people with
Asperger’s is
often stilted, not normal. I have spoken to Lorna Wing in the UK about
the use
of language in autistic children who, like my son, lost their speech,
and I
agree with Lorna that the nature of that language was non-social. My
question
is this: is the language used by people with Asperger’s resolutely
asocial? Is their obsession with talking
about
dinosaurs or lightbulbs or Winston Churchill a deliberate attempt to
avoid
meaningful social interaction?
TONY
ATTWOOD: You’ve asked many questions
there. I’ll answer them one by one. The language profile in Asperger’s
syndrome
is different. Whether or not they were delayed in language when they
were young
children is, I believe, irrelevant. What is important is how they use
language
in a social context. The art of
conversation is not something in which they are naturally skilled.
Also, they
are not skilled in translating their thoughts into speech. And quite
often,
their thoughts may be visualisations or concepts which are not easy to
convey
in spoken communication but which may be conveyed by written or typed
communication in e-mails, drawings, etc. But in a social setting, there
are
problems in the pragmatic aspects of language - especially social
conversation.
There can also be difficulties with regard to being somewhat pedantic,
with
rather odd prosody, and with not picking up the cues. But certainly,
when I, as
a clinician, socialise linguistically with someone with Asperger’s
syndrome, it
tends, from their point of view, to be somewhat artificial, contrived,
laborious and clumsy. Yet, when you start talking about their special
interests, then their eloquence, fluency and enthusiasm can be most
captivating. So with speech, it depends on what you’re talking about.
ADAM
FEINSTEIN: In the case of those children
who lost their language, some do begin to speak again. I have not seen
this
question asked before, so here goes. Do any of these individuals ever
regain a
sufficient level of language to warrant a diagnosis of Asperger’s
syndrome? Has
this ever happened?
TONY
ATTWOOD: At present,
we have not thoroughly examined the
longitudinal development of those who have late-onset autism: those who, as far as we can tell, have
relatively normal development and then lose not only linguistic skills
but
social and play skills. Some of these children can - perhaps two, three
or four
years later - recover some of their speech and go beyond the level they
had reached before it started to
disappear. We do not really know whether these groups have a distinct
prognosis, but I do know that some who lose their speech may achieve
speech
later on and move into the description of Asperger’s syndrome rather
than Leo
Kanner’s classic autism.
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