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Week 9/2011: Asperger’s causes breaks in conversation

People engaged in science are often derided for their lack of social skills and their single-minded focus on their own special field. These characteristics could also be used to describe Asperger’s syndrome (AS). It is one form of autism and tens of thousands Finns suffer from its symptoms. Individuals with AS are often socially awkward and not necessarily capable of interpreting non-verbal messages.  

Mari Lehtinen, a post-doctoral researcher and linguist, has analysed problems of comprehension in the speech of young people with AS, that is to say, the features which hinder communication so much that there arises a need for correction or re-phrasing.

According to Lehtinen, the overly literal understanding of speech clearly causes the most difficulties. In a well-known story about a young girl suffering from AS, her parents are wondering why the washing results of her new shampoo are lousy. The explanation is found on the bottle. The instructions for use say “for dry hair”.

Individuals with AS may also have difficulties interpreting speech inflections as well as gestures of the speaking partner, says Lehtinen. Tones of speech are produced by means of prosody, for example, with melody, volume and rhythm of speech.

“Moreover, their own speech and non-verbal communication may contain atypical features, such as avoidance of eye contact in spontaneous conversation or a particularly rapid or slow way of speaking. Their speech may also be either very even or alternating melodically.”

In addition to taking meanings too literally, another feature of AS speakers causing breaks in communications are topical jumps or sudden transitions from a topic to another. The comments may be completely reasonable but they are detached from the on-going conversation. Individuals with AS find it difficult to put themselves in the position of other people and consequently they are sometimes unable to assess whether a change in subject requires them to provide background or not.

Last year, Mari Lehtinen was selected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters’ Academy Club for Young Scientists, which is comprised of sixteen top young researchers.

Text: Kimmo Luukkonen
Photo: Flickr
Translation: AAC Global

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