Language-Improving Activities for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Language is used in every aspect of our daily life, any delay or exceptional development of this means of communication can deteriorate our interaction with others. Those delays can be an atypical way of receiving, processing, or producing utterance. This research tackles one of the disorders that affect the normal use of language: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) which is a developmental disorder that affects social interaction, communication, and behaviors. Most kids diagnosed with ASD are unable to interact with others because of the rare or poor use of language. They show difficulties to express their needs so they just use a repetitive behavior. They seem to have no indifference to pain or high temperature, respond to specific sounds, and show excessive interest in objects. Lastly, they might be disturbed if any changes occurred to their daily routine even if it was their meal. However, many centers specialized in taking care of affected kids have developed special activities and workshops to help them learn the language. Those centers created personalized programs to provide a better help. They also tend to assist kids directly to overcome the obstacles and orient parents on how to help their exceptional kids. This thesis was supposed to focus on describing the approaches, methods, tests, and assessments used by the specialized “Amel Center for Autistic Kids” in Adrar, Algeria. Unfortunately, the pandemic situation and the lockdown that was imposed thereafter hindered the fulfillment of this last practical part of the thesis, thereby limiting this research work to the theoretical part only.