Receptive Language Disorders in an Iraqi Child with Autism: A Case Study

Abstract

Among the basic communication deficits associated with autistic children, receptive language disorders, broadly defined as the difficulty of understanding and tracking what others are saying, are distinctive features of autism. This study aims at examining a case of receptive language abilities in a three-year-old autistic child using three assessment measures of language development (a parent report, a self-designed assessment, and frequent direct observations by the researchers on the child himself in different communicative situations). Scarce research tackles the communicative deficit part of autistic children in Arabic contexts, especially in Iraq, although such communication deficits in autism become more observable and increasing in society. More specifically, comprehension skills in autistic children have scarcely been tackled despite the fact that the early response to language comprehension tasks is one of the basic and primary signs of autism in children at a very early age (Dahlgren & Gillberg, 1989; Lord, 1995). This study mainly contributes to the limited data about autism research in Iraq.  Studying language receptive skills, in particular, and examining the related causes for poor speech/language comprehension helps parents and practitioners understand the problem more accurately and adjust the appropriate intervention programs that fit the level of perception and understanding in autistic children. Findings indicate that the observed autistic child exhibits severe receptive language impairments in comparison with the typically developing children of the same age due to the lack of basic sensory processing skills and other social factors.