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Pragmatic Language Do humans really understand what they and others are saying? Implications for autistic people.

Phased

An excellent recent thread on Autism Related Terminology started by  and joined in by many fine members of our community has prompted this post.

The post highlighted to me just how important the meaning of words is to myself and perhaps others autistic people.

Maybe word meaning is so important because, as is frequently reported, autistic people often demonstrate difficulties in the communicative use of language compared with neurotypical standards.

A quick internet search reveals scientific studies finding that autistic children exhibit significant difficulties in pragmatics, 

"Pragmatic language refers to how people use language to communicate with one another. Being able to use language in different ways for different purposes and interpret how others use language in social situations is an important skill." 

A really simple way of understanding this is presented in a way that really made sense to me is in this Source What Is Pragmatic Language? - Child Mind Institute

The good person on the video really makes a key point to me about it being how we use language, how it is said and done. and that it might be taught.

Reflection on my own behaviour and other people who I know to be autistic points towards problems with pragmatic language continue well into adulthood.

Hehe maybe and old dog like me can learn new tricks!

Any thoughts on this good people?

Parents

  • Choosing the correct words to say something is extremely important because it can avoid confusion. Having said that, I am guilty of posting some nonsensical things on this forum, usually when my mind is all over the place or my grammar skills are diminished. This commonly happens when I’m sleep deprived or having some crisis, but I do try to make what I say clear.

    This has reminded me of an earlier post which contained a noun that had been in common use by some archaeologists, and which was listed in the Oxford Archaeological Dictionary, yet it had a different and more literal meaning in other academic specialisms and in daily life. Unrelated, to that post, sociology, archaeology, anthropology and philosophy use words that mean different things in the others specialisms or in every day life. Things like these might cause further disagreements here as we have people who are very knowledgeable on their specialist subjects.

  • in reply to ArchaeC

    I know what you mean about posting nonsense things and I do that frequently with my closest friends mostly because they know me and they know if I’m joking - has this got something to do with masking and un masking? Needing to use correct words because if you don’t you know the outcome might not be correct but also needing to melt and the social exhaustion 

  • in reply to kiwipip
    kiwipip said:
    has this got something to do with masking and un masking? Needing to use correct words because if you don’t you know the outcome might not be correct but also needing to melt and the social exhaustion

    Yes! It’s probably about masking and fitting in. My communication skills are irregular, and some days I lose the ability to make sense. I know what I mean in my head, but I can’t put it into words. I have a book (I don’t remember the title) somewhere that has a piece on this. It talks about the process of conversation—hearing (reading?) information, receiving it in the brain as words, translating the words into pictures, …, translating what you want to say from pictures into words, saying the words. 

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  • in reply to kiwipip
    kiwipip said:
    has this got something to do with masking and un masking? Needing to use correct words because if you don’t you know the outcome might not be correct but also needing to melt and the social exhaustion

    Yes! It’s probably about masking and fitting in. My communication skills are irregular, and some days I lose the ability to make sense. I know what I mean in my head, but I can’t put it into words. I have a book (I don’t remember the title) somewhere that has a piece on this. It talks about the process of conversation—hearing (reading?) information, receiving it in the brain as words, translating the words into pictures, …, translating what you want to say from pictures into words, saying the words. 

Children