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The language patterns mothers and fathers employ with their autistic boys and girls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

M. Mary Konstantareas ,
Lisa Mandel  and
Soula Homatidis
M. Mary Konstantareas*
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto
Lisa Mandel
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto
Soula Homatidis
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto
*
M. Mary Konstantareas, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8, Canada
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Abstract

The special features of speech addressed to autistic children by their mothers and fathers were examined in an effort to clarify how the child's level of functioning influenced parental language style. A total of 12 children, 6 boys and 6 girls, half of whom were higher functioning and verbal and the remainder lower functioning and nonverbal, were videotaped in a 15-minute interaction with their mothers and fathers. The total number of utterances used was comparable for mothers and fathers, but mothers employed shorter mean lengths of utterance and more prompts to elicit speech or motoric activity when their children were lower functioning and nonverbal than when they were higher functioning and verbal. The higher functioning, verbal children were more frequently reinforced for speech, while the lower functioning, nonverbal children were more likely to be given indirect directives. Fathers issued direct directives more frequently than mothers, while mothers were more likely to employ prompts to stimulate their children's speech, particularly when they were lower functioning. Thus, both mothers and fathers of autistic children appear to be sensitive to their child's particular presenting characteristics, but differ in how they accommodate to them.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 403 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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