The Assessment of Language and Communication Abilities of the Autistic Child based on Selected Diagnostic Tools. A Case Study

Abstract

The article is a survey of selected testing tools for diagnosing linguistic and communicative competences, exemplified by the case study of the child with complex communication disorders with underlying comprehensive developmental disorders: autism and intellectual disability. Diagnosis is the first of the elements of speech therapy management, it is the foundation of the logopedist’s actions and determines the effectives of conducted therapeutic activities; what is significant, the diagnostic process is an inherent element of logopedic work, because the logopedist, according to the standard of logopedic management proposed by S. Grabias (S. Grabias, 2015), has to verify the earlier proposed diagnostic hypotheses. In the domain of logopedics, a uniform tool for diagnosing linguistic, communicative and cultural competences, based on the interaction theory for patients(children) with autism spectrum disorders, has not yet been developed. For already the first descriptions of this disorder showed that these children were born with an innate inability to make ordinary, biologically conditioned contacts with people (L. Kanner, 1943). The present article shows the possibility of linguistically interacting with others by the child with multiple disabilities: autism and intellectual disability; each of the tools presented in the texts allows assessing different skills and competences, whereby it is possible to construct a complete picture of the child’s abilities and deficits and to plan his/her individualized logopedic therapy taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the boy’s linguistic and cognitive functioning.