The aim of this paper is to provide information regarding diversity in speech and language profiles of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and try to classify these profiles according to the combination of the communication difficulties. Research findings confirm the existence of heterogeneity of communication challenges in ASD across the lifespan. A lot of children with ASD experience communication challenges and strengths across all language sub-systems including pragmatics, grammar, semantics, syntax, phonology, and morphology in both oral and written language, while some children with autism demonstrate exceptional language abilities incl. linguistic creativity. Communication issues vary on a continuum of severity so that some children may be verbal, whereas others remain non-verbal or minimally-verbal. The diversity of profiles in speech and language development stem from either the presence of comorbid factors, as a core symptom of autistic behavior without comorbidity or both, with the development of complex clinical symptoms. Difficulties with the semantic aspect of language affect the individual’s skills in abstract thinking, multiple meanings of words, concept categorization, and so on. Finally, the coexistence of ASD with other communication difficulties such as a Language Disorder, Apraxia of Speech, Speech Sound Disorders or/and other neurodevelopmental disorders raises the need for examining more carefully the emergence of new clinical profiles and clinical markers useful in performing differential diagnosis and different intervention.

The relationship between parental input and child language development has had a complex history. It has become clear that indirect parent training for the parents of children with delayed language development is an important feature of interventions offered by speech and language therapists in the anglophone countries. Yet we know less about how this type of approach is realised in other countries. In this paper we report the results of a survey of practice undertaken as part of the work of COST Action IS1406, a European Union (EU) funded research network. The focus of this paper is specifically on parent-related questions and responses referring to children under the age of twelve. The survey was devised by members of the Action and circulated electronically during the summer of 2017. In all, 4024 practitioners responded from 60 countries, the majority of whom came from EU member countries. Respondents to the survey indicated that indirect therapy is commonly carried out via the parent in the early years and via teachers later. A range of professional groups, in addition to speech and language therapists, is likely to adopt this approach; including teachers, pedagogues and psychologists. A variety of interventions is reported, some of which have a reasonable evidence-base underpinning them. It is interesting to see the widespread involvement of fathers and other family members in interventions. Finally, the fact that practitioner characteristics (age, experience, location of practice etc.) are not related to the use of indirect techniques points to the universal recognition of the value of these approaches. Despite the very different traditions in the practice of intervention across countries, there is clearly a widespread recognition of the importance of indirect approaches to intervention and specifically those focusing on parents. The mixture of family members being involved in interventions is a very promising indication of the role sharing commonly associated with the contemporary family. Yet the number of specific intervention approaches identified is relatively small given the number of respondents. There is a need for a better understanding of what exactly practitioners are doing when they involve parents in intervention or carry out parent-child interaction interventions and how well these interventions work in routine practice. This also has implications for the application of evidence-based practice and the precise nature of the interventions concerned (advice to parents, video interaction training etc.).

We conducted a detailed study of a case of linguistic talent in the context of autism spectrum disorder, specifically Asperger syndrome. I.A. displays language strengths at the level of morphology and syntax. Yet, despite this grammar advantage, processing of figurative language and inferencing based on context presents a problem for him. The morphology advantage for I.A. is consistent with the weak central coherence (WCC) account of autism. From this account, the presence of a local processing bias is evident in the ways in which autistic individuals solve common problems, such as assessing similarities between objects and finding common patterns, and may therefore provide an advantage in some cognitive tasks compared to typical individuals. We extend the WCC account to language and provide evidence for a connection between the local processing bias and the acquisition of morphology and grammar.

Background: The cultural and language diversity across many European countries presents a range of challenges and opportunities for speech and language therapists and other practitioners working with children with developmental language disorders (DLD) and their families. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore practitioners’ perceptions of cultural and linguistic differences in response to children with DLD across different countries. Methods: A survey was developed by practitioners and researchers working with children with DLD across Europe and beyond as part of the work of Cost Action IS1406. Data from 1,358 practitioners from 8 European countries – Ireland, UK, Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, Spain, Norway and Sweden – and 2 neighbour countries – Turkey and Lebanon – were included in the present analyses, which address two groups of questions. The first focuses on practitioners’ perceptions of the way that parents think about cultural differences and their relationship to language development in their children. The second concerns the extent to which practitioners consider themselves to have the skills to work with children from other cultures and using different languages. Results/Conclusions: Most countries present a similar profile with intermediate results about their perception of cultural issues, but Lebanon and Turkey are the group with the most positive responses. In terms of bilingual issues most practitioners indicated that they only worked in their country’s primary language. The only country where this was not the case was Lebanon. Professionals from Spain and Lebanon form a subgroup in terms of their confidence to work with different cultural/language groups. The paper highlights both the universal importance of cultural and linguistic competence in managing young children’s needs and indicates that in most cases professionals do not think they have the necessary expertise to work with cultural and linguistic diversity.

The present work analyses a study, conducted among Bulgarian speech and language pathologists - SLTs on the use of educational computer games in their practice, attitudes and perceptions, related to it, as well as the type of deficits they tackle, and its effects and expected outcomes. 103 participants answered 26 questions in a survey, designed by the authors, related to the educational computer games use. The study shows a widespread use of games without overuse and need of structured policy development for specialized educational computer games elaboration to support the work of the SLT in the country.