Classic studies described the core problem of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) now as a deficit in the Theory of Mind, now as a deficit in executive functions or in inferential abilities. Recent studies, on the contrary, spotted and emphasized the presence of some anomalies in early communicative behaviours of children with autism. Although the diagnosis of autism is usually made around 18-36 month of age, recent studies (that I will talk about in the main part of the thesis) show earlier anomalies in the ontogenetic development of children later diagnosed with ASD. The precocity of these signs suggests a cognitive alteration that is rooted in the interactive process between the child and his social world. Children later diagnosed with ASD show problems in eye-contact; in joint attention; in reacting to their own names; in pointing; in considering others as potentially helpful (or simply interesting) to them. Children with autism don’t perceive the world as we do (Pennisi 2014); they are not interested in what is interesting for TD subjects. During a TV show, TD children will mainly look at faces; on the contrary, the most part of children later diagnosed with autism will mainly look at the background, or maybe at subtitles, or at the furnishing of the set. In order to study autism, I started from the perceptual anomalies of this clinical population. At the beginning I was intrigued by the incredible perceptions of autistic enfants savant and by perceptive problems related to this pathology. If it’s true, as posited by Arnheim (2015) and widely accepted by modern neuroscience (Kandel 2012), that perception is a creative cognitive process, we could consider it as a social process too. Through the case of autism, I will describe the social aspects of perception. I will show what it means for a human being to be unable to synchronize his universe of perceptual saliences with the one of others and how this anomaly can be transferred into other cognitive processes such as language. The study of autistic perception brought me quickly to the study of language. How can children who don’t perceive the world as I do learn language? How can we relate linguistic anomalies in subjects with autism with the alteration of their perceptual biases? Are these phenomena related in such a way? My idea is that linguistic anomalies could be better understood if we see them in relation to perceptual biases. In fact, if I don’t perceive the prosodic cues that my mother is giving to me through her baby talk, it will be too hard for me to learn language. If my body doesn’t react as others’ body do when hearing the word You, it will be hard for me to understand the linguistic content of others’ utterances. Without a common perceptual background, when my mother will point her finger at a smilig doll I will focus my attention on her watch… that watch with fantastic numbers and a hypnotic, rhythmic noise of lancets! As I will try to show in this thesis, the pointing and the fixation of reference come from the same cognitive attitude: being interested and attracted by the same perceptual cues. In this thesis I will describe the most part of linguistic anomalies in subjects with ASD. Then I will try to overcome some prejudice linked to autism, like the idea that patients are unable to understand metaphors. Above all, I will try to describe the linguistic phenotypes of subjects with autism, supporting the idea that the alteration of perceptual biases in subjects with autism is caused by a neurodevelopmental impairment of the system of perceptual saliences. An alteration in the detection of salience will prevent the baby to understand prosody and baby talk and to normally develop language. This idea has two main consequences: • Pragmatics is not–as commonly considered–a refinement of language at high level of competences, but an essential component for the ontogenetic development of language. • In order to develop in a normal way, language needs not only the presence of other speakers, but even a perceptive system that is able to synchronize the speaker’s mind, before the learning of first words. The thesis is organized in six chapters: the first chapter is about linguistic anomalies in subjects with autism; in the second chapter, I give an exact definition of clinical pragmatics; the third chapter discusses pragmatic anomalies in subjects with ASD; the fourth chapter describes and analyses the ontogenetic development of language in subjects with ASD; the fifth chapter put in correlation pragmatic anomalies in subjects with ASD with perceptual biases; the sixth chapter is an attempt to collocate my idea about linguistic anomalies in subjects with autism in the theoretical background of embodied cognition through the analysis of the fixation of personal reference. Each chapter is introduced by a brief description of its content.

A hypothesis on linguistic and pragmatic disorders in subjects with autism

PENNISI, PAOLA
2017-12-13

Abstract

Classic studies described the core problem of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) now as a deficit in the Theory of Mind, now as a deficit in executive functions or in inferential abilities. Recent studies, on the contrary, spotted and emphasized the presence of some anomalies in early communicative behaviours of children with autism. Although the diagnosis of autism is usually made around 18-36 month of age, recent studies (that I will talk about in the main part of the thesis) show earlier anomalies in the ontogenetic development of children later diagnosed with ASD. The precocity of these signs suggests a cognitive alteration that is rooted in the interactive process between the child and his social world. Children later diagnosed with ASD show problems in eye-contact; in joint attention; in reacting to their own names; in pointing; in considering others as potentially helpful (or simply interesting) to them. Children with autism don’t perceive the world as we do (Pennisi 2014); they are not interested in what is interesting for TD subjects. During a TV show, TD children will mainly look at faces; on the contrary, the most part of children later diagnosed with autism will mainly look at the background, or maybe at subtitles, or at the furnishing of the set. In order to study autism, I started from the perceptual anomalies of this clinical population. At the beginning I was intrigued by the incredible perceptions of autistic enfants savant and by perceptive problems related to this pathology. If it’s true, as posited by Arnheim (2015) and widely accepted by modern neuroscience (Kandel 2012), that perception is a creative cognitive process, we could consider it as a social process too. Through the case of autism, I will describe the social aspects of perception. I will show what it means for a human being to be unable to synchronize his universe of perceptual saliences with the one of others and how this anomaly can be transferred into other cognitive processes such as language. The study of autistic perception brought me quickly to the study of language. How can children who don’t perceive the world as I do learn language? How can we relate linguistic anomalies in subjects with autism with the alteration of their perceptual biases? Are these phenomena related in such a way? My idea is that linguistic anomalies could be better understood if we see them in relation to perceptual biases. In fact, if I don’t perceive the prosodic cues that my mother is giving to me through her baby talk, it will be too hard for me to learn language. If my body doesn’t react as others’ body do when hearing the word You, it will be hard for me to understand the linguistic content of others’ utterances. Without a common perceptual background, when my mother will point her finger at a smilig doll I will focus my attention on her watch… that watch with fantastic numbers and a hypnotic, rhythmic noise of lancets! As I will try to show in this thesis, the pointing and the fixation of reference come from the same cognitive attitude: being interested and attracted by the same perceptual cues. In this thesis I will describe the most part of linguistic anomalies in subjects with ASD. Then I will try to overcome some prejudice linked to autism, like the idea that patients are unable to understand metaphors. Above all, I will try to describe the linguistic phenotypes of subjects with autism, supporting the idea that the alteration of perceptual biases in subjects with autism is caused by a neurodevelopmental impairment of the system of perceptual saliences. An alteration in the detection of salience will prevent the baby to understand prosody and baby talk and to normally develop language. This idea has two main consequences: • Pragmatics is not–as commonly considered–a refinement of language at high level of competences, but an essential component for the ontogenetic development of language. • In order to develop in a normal way, language needs not only the presence of other speakers, but even a perceptive system that is able to synchronize the speaker’s mind, before the learning of first words. The thesis is organized in six chapters: the first chapter is about linguistic anomalies in subjects with autism; in the second chapter, I give an exact definition of clinical pragmatics; the third chapter discusses pragmatic anomalies in subjects with ASD; the fourth chapter describes and analyses the ontogenetic development of language in subjects with ASD; the fifth chapter put in correlation pragmatic anomalies in subjects with ASD with perceptual biases; the sixth chapter is an attempt to collocate my idea about linguistic anomalies in subjects with autism in the theoretical background of embodied cognition through the analysis of the fixation of personal reference. Each chapter is introduced by a brief description of its content.
13-dic-2017
autism language philosophy pragmatics reference
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11570/3117801
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