Autistic children talk to themselves often and in ways that are similar to non-autistic children, a new study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities reports and somehow I don’t feel too surprised about this. As noted here, Charlie definitely keeps up a constant stream of talk and verbalizations. He talks to himself, to remind himself and keep himself focused; as a self-referencing strategy. It does seem that he’s often got a song or line of music playing in his head; plenty of times he’s burst into song, and on key.
More about the study: According to Science Daily (which also reports on a study about private speech in preschoolers), Adam Winsler, an associate professor of psychology at George Mason University, has published the first study about private speech in autistic children. Winsler found that
high-functioning autistic children talk to themselves often and in the same ways that non-autistic children do. Talking aloud also improved their performance on tasks.
“Children with autism have problems with their external social speech, so psychologists assumed that their private speech would also be impaired,” says Winsler. “But this study shows that it is not the case—that autistic children use their private speech very effectively as a tool to help them with tasks.”
Since Charlie does definitely have “problems with [his] external social speech,” we don’t have a clear idea of what sort of language goes on in his mind. He has been learning to type—single words—and perhaps he might type to communicate, someday. In the meantime, I guess I’ll still be guilty of eavesdropping from time to time…………