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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterised by profound deficits in social interaction and social communication, in addition to a restricted range of interests and behaviours. Both core deficits should present great challenges for language acquisition, yet many children with ASD are able to acquire age-appropriate structural aspects of language and impressive vocabularies. Discovering how children with ASD learn language in the face of social-cognitive differences highlights additional risk factors that further impede language learning for many children with ASD. A multifactorial approach to understanding language variation will be considered, outlining protective factors that may promote language development in some individuals with ASD. In addition, I will argue that factors that likely increase risk for language impairment may be shared with other neurodevelopmental disorders and point to possible avenues for intervention. |
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