Repetitiveness and productivity in the language of adults with autism

A multiple case study design was used to investigate the language and conversation of 6 adults with autistic spectrum diagnoses who had varied cognitive and social ability. The format for data collection was informal one-to-one interview carried out over some months. Wechsler Intelligence Tests were also carried out on the study participants. Data was audio- taped and transcribed. Conversation Analysis and structural linguistic analysis methodologies were used to analyse the data obtained. A primary interest of the study was the dimensions of repetitiveness in autistic language, and this was explored at the levels of speech, syntax and discourse. The identification of key characteristics of language in adults with autism was also an important aim of the study. Analysis of the data suggests that adults with autism exhibit peculiarities of speech and syntax which cannot necessarily be related to developmental linguistic delay. At the level of conversation, difficulties were also seen to exist in cohering discourse and interaction, maintaining topic and in the use of repair. Repetitiveness in autistic language is pervasive, in that it is seen to exist at all the linguistic levels considered in the study, and at all levels of cognitive ability. Further, repetitiveness appears to be used as a resource to enable talk to proceed, particularly at critical points in the discourse. The psycholinguistic implications of the data were also considered, particularly in relation to MacWhinney’s Competition Model of language processing and acquisition.