語言病理學家坐在患有自閉癥的男孩旁邊，幫助他在溝通方面取得進步

在飛行過程中，語言病理學家坐在患有自閉癥的男孩旁邊8個小時，能夠在溝通方面取得令人難以置信的進步

Life works in mysterious ways. But sometimes everything just falls into place. When speech-language pathologist (SLP) Rachel Romeo was returning from a conference on a long international flight, there was a father and son sitting next to her. Little did everyone know, Rachel and the little kid couldn’t have had a better passenger to travel with.

生命以神秘的方式運作。但有時候，一切都是順其自然。當語言病理學家雷切爾·羅密歐(Rachel Romeo)參加完一次長途國際航班的會議回來時，坐在她旁邊的是一對父子。大家都不知道，瑞秋和孩子找不到比他更好的乘客了。

The father explained that his 10-year-old boy had autism and was nonverbal. He then apologized to Romeo because the 8-hour flight was likely to be difficult for his child and those around him. But challenging behaviors began even before take-off. The boy was “screaming, hitting me, and grabbing for my things. The father repeatedly apologized, but did little else,” Romeo wrote. However, the situation began to change when Romeo started using principals of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), a series of ways to communicate without speaking out loud, to help the boy tell her and his dad his needs.

這位父親解釋說，他10歲的兒子患有自閉癥，而且不善言辭。然后他向羅密歐道歉，因為8小時的飛行對他的孩子和他周圍的人來說可能會很困難。但挑戰(zhàn)性的行為甚至在起飛前就開始了。那個男孩“尖叫著，打我，抓著我的東西。父親再三道歉，但沒有做什么別的。”羅密歐寫道。然而，當羅密歐開始使用增強和替代溝通(AAC)的原則時，情況開始發(fā)生了變化。

Image credits: Gabrieli Laboratory

According to a study by Boston University, nearly a third of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder “never learn to speak more than a few words.” Nonverbal autism is somewhat poorly researched, and we know quite little about the thought processes of these people. Nevertheless, new research is being carried out, and new technologies are being developed to better understand them.

波士頓大學(Boston University)的一項研究顯示，近三分之一被診斷為自閉癥譜系障礙(autism spectrum disorder)的人“從未學會說幾個字以上”。“非語言自閉癥的研究相對較少，我們對這些人的思維過程知之甚少。然而，正在進行新的研究，開發(fā)新的技術(shù)以更好地了解它們。

VeryWell Health wrote that the term “nonverbal autism” isn’t an official one. “There is no such diagnosis as ‘nonverbal autism.’ In part, that’s because there is no clear line between verbal and nonverbal individuals with autism.”

VeryWell Health寫道，“非語言自閉癥”并不是一個官方術(shù)語。“沒有所謂的‘非語言自閉癥’這樣的診斷。在某種程度上，這是因為自閉癥患者在語言和非語言個體之間沒有明確的界限。”

No one really knows for sure why some people with autism can’t, or don’t, use spoken language. It puzzles scientists a lot since quite a few nonverbal people on the spectrum can and do choose to communicate using American Sign Language, picture cards, and a range of digital tools.

沒有人確切地知道為什么有些自閉癥患者不能或不能夠使用口語。這讓科學家們很困惑，因為光譜上相當多的非言語者能夠而且確實選擇使用美國手語、圖片卡和一系列數(shù)字工具進行交流。

“True, some people with autism also have childhood apraxia of speech, a neurological disorder that makes spoken language extremely difficult. But most nonverbal individuals on the autism spectrum don’t have apraxia; they just don’t speak. Clearly, there are differences in brain function that inhibit spoken language, but at this point, there is no agreement on just what those differences are or how they impact any given individual.”

的確，有些自閉癥患者在童年時期也有語言失用癥，這是一種神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)紊亂，使口語極其困難。但是自閉癥譜系中的大多數(shù)非語言個體并沒有失用癥;他們就是不說話。顯然，抑制口語的大腦功能存在差異，但在這一點上，對于這些差異究竟是什么，以及它們?nèi)绾斡绊懭魏翁囟ǖ膫€體，人們還沒有達成一致。”

More info: Twitter