How does language acquisition work if you're non-verbal?

If language acquisition is the psychological term for the process by which we learn to use language, how do non-verbal autistics acquire their first language?

Do you know what word you first spoke? Do you know when you spoke that word? Have you ever considered how many words you have learned over your lifetime? Many psychologists estimate that neurotypical people learn around 3,500 words a year between their first and thirtieth birthdays. They grow from infants without language to chatterboxes with a gift for gab, and researchers are fascinated by how this happens.

Psychologists have different theories on neurotypical language acquisition, or the process by which they learn to speak, write, or even use sign language in meaningful ways to communicate.

But what about the non-verbal? What language do non-verbal autistic people acquire? When and how does this happen?

Theories of Neurotypical Language Acquisition

Behaviourists, like B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), argued that language acquisition and development in neurotypicals are learned behaviours. Behaviourists believe neurotypical children learn language by associating events. This is known in ABA as classical conditioning. They also learn through rewards and punishments, a process known in ABA as operant conditioning. Another aspect of behaviourism is that neurotypical people learn by observation and imitation.

Wait, what? Did Skinner really segregate his subjects into neurotypical and neurodivergent? No, silly. He didn’t. And, that’s the point. Skinner, and his acolytes applied their theories to the whole distribution of humanity, ignoring outliers - like non-verbal populations. They still do.

Nevertheless, it’s important to understand how learning specialists think of these theories of learning and how they apply to language acquisition in typical populations. In this way, it is hoped that we can have a civilized conversation. You see, they theorize that over repeated exposures, neurotypical infants learn to associate an object with a sound or word for that object. When a neurotypical infant babbles 'dada,' the infant is rewarded by smiling and happy parents who reward their child's efforts at communicating with a shower of emotional energy. These experts also think that neurotypical infants may learn their home’s language by observing caregivers and imitating their sounds.

Linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky has added to what we think about neurotypical language development. Chomsky believes that neurotypical infants and children learn language at a speed that cannot simply be explained by the laws of behaviourism. According to Chomsky, neurotypical children learning language put words together in new ways, creating meaningful sentences they have never heard before. Chomsky argues that these children learn rules of language and apply them in their own way, often inaccurately at first. Because these children would not have heard adults using rules of language so inaccurately, Chomsky came up with another theory on language development.

Chomsky's linguistic theory (Universal Grammar) states that neurotypical people are born with an innate ability to learn language, and with little guidance, neurotypical children will naturally learn language. Chomsky argues we must be born with a language acquisition device (LAD), a proposed area of the brain that should make learning language a natural event. As evidence, he points to the idea that children all over the world learn language in similar ways, regardless of their culture or the language they learn to speak. Yet, he wasn’t exactly referring to non-verbal populations. Others have tried to tie the autistic tendency towards the mastery of complex embedded structures to language acquisition to explain why some in the non-verbal population (like me) can eventually learn a verbal language. But, these, like the LAD, are still just theories.

Recent research on language seeks to understand whether or not neurotypical people have a critical period for acquiring language. As they age, does language acquisition become more difficult? For example, is it harder for adults to learn a new language? Neurotypical children learning new languages generally outperform adults learning new languages in terms of learning vocabulary, applying rules of grammar, and speaking with the correct accent. The critical period hypothesis states that we have a time frame for learning new language, and once that time is over, language acquisition becomes much more difficult.

Stages of Neurotypical Language Acquisition

When you see a neurotypical child chattering to their parents, it's hard to believe they were born without language. By the time these infants are four months old, they usually begin the babbling stage of language. During the babbling stage, these infants make seemingly random and spontaneous sounds, cooing, squealing, and gurgling. At this point, outsiders listening in would not be able to tell what language the baby is learning. Around ten months of age, babbling starts to sound more like the language the child is learning.

The one-word stage happens around the time the child turns one year and begins to utter sounds that have meaning, like 'ma' for mom, 'da' for dad, and 'wa-wa' for water. They begin to speak in simple words, like 'dog' or 'up.'

By the time these children have reached their second birthday, they usually have elements of the two-word stage. The two-word stage is sometimes called telegraphic speech because, around two years of age, the sentences created are short and direct, like a telegraph. Babies might indicate their wants like, 'Want milk,' or 'Go outside.'

Some developmental psychologists believe the time period known as the 'terrible twos' may be a result of a neurotypical two-year-old's inability to communicate what they want effectively. For example, the child may indicate they want a drink, but they are unable to communicate that they would like a drink in their favorite blue cup. When you give them the red cup, tantrums ensue, and you are left wondering what went wrong. Many parents today have found that teaching their infant to use sign language gives their child the ability to communicate more effectively at this age, reducing tantrums.

After the two-word stage, language development picks up with amazing speed. Once they've reached their second birthday, children learn language rapidly and begin to use complete sentences. Soon the child can not only tell you they would like their blue cup, but they can communicate whether they would prefer their juice shaken or stirred.

By the time this child reaches school age, they should be able to form complex sentences and understand multiple meanings in communication. Once these typically developing teenagers are writing their college application essays, they have amassed a vocabulary of over 60,000 words.

What About Language Development in Non-Standard Populations?

Before we dive into that question, here’s something to consider. What does learning a language have in common with toilet training? The behaviourist might say, everything. Language is communication, and communication is behaviour. Thus, behaviour analysis can be employed to teach language. But … can it really? Behaviourism assumes so, and never looks back.

Skinner’s book on this subject, Verbal Behavior, was written in 1957. It’s practices began to be applied to autistic individuals in the 1990s. Today, Verbal Behaviour is a so-called evidence-based practice in Behaviour Analysis, and mastery of Skinner’s theory of verbal behaviour is required for practising behaviour analysts who work with autistic people.

Identifying so-called evidence-based interventions is important to Behaviourists because they observe that language development of autistic children is often atypical when compared to neurotypical children (Luyster, Lopez, & Lord, 2007). For instance, they worry that some autistic children won’t gain speech and are likely to remain non-verbal without “intervention” (Rice, Warren, & Betz, 2005). Other autistic children may have atypical language patterns such as delayed echolalia (e.g., repeating phrases heard previously) or lack social communication with others. Still other autistic children may have severely delayed listening comprehension (audio processing delay?). These and other communication issues associated with neurodivergence challenge researchers and teachers to develop methods that can improve the communication outcomes of young autistic children during early childhood.

Yet, a study of the available literature posits that the autistic brain is a disordered typical brain. Thus, most of the advice assumes that once therapists and teachers can bypass those pesky “broken” areas of the autistic brain, normal learning trajectories can be achieved. This is not only wrong-headed, it’s harmful.

What researchers don’t seem to want to understand is that our brains are working as designed. We’re just designed different.

If you’ve been reading my work, you’ll know that I’m a fan of the Solitary Forager Hypothesis of Autism (link). Given the Hypothesis, what use does a Solitary Forager have for verbal language? Hold that thought …

Communication Has Many Different, Often Conflicting Meanings.

Communication can mean the imparting or exchanging of information. It can be a means of sending or receiving information. These can be combined to form a more complex definition, the act of conveying intended meaning to another entity through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic (relating to signs and symbols) rules. It's this combined definition where the problems begin between neurotypicals and autistic people – the mutual and agreed upon understanding of signs / symbols.

You see, you and I likely don't "speak" the same language. My typing this information, your reading this article, is a form of communication. But, because you don't "speak" my language, I must use an agreed upon set of signs / symbols to communicate with you. This verbal / vocal form of communication wasn't always possible for me as I didn't start life knowing this "language." I never acquired it I had to learn. That process took a lot of time.

According to Klemfuss (Klemfuss, et al, 2012), Language provides a medium for describing the contents of our conscious experience. We use it to share our perceptual experiences, thoughts, and intentions with other individuals. The idea that language guides our cognition was clearly articulated by Whorf (1942) who proposed that an individual’s conceptual knowledge was shaped by their language. There is clear evidence demonstrating that language directs thought (Ervin-Tripp, 1967), influences concepts of time and space (e.g., Boroditsky, 2001), and affects memory (e.g., Loftus and Palmer, 1974).

This issue certainly isn’t new, Albert Pike in his 1871 magnum opus, the Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, wrote in introducing the third section, "to understand literally the symbols and allegories of Oriental books as to ante-historical matters, is willfully to close our eyes against the Light. To translate the symbols into the trivial and commonplace, is the blundering of mediocrity." Pike clearly understood that moving from the symbolic world of our brain’s processing of the entirety of our experience into the world of the English language would cause problems in communicating substantial subjects. I wonder if Skinner ever read Pike? But, I digress …

Given the definition of language, and the link to cognition and the theatre of our minds, you may have heard the term "non-verbal" and wondered, “what does that actually mean?” You may have also heard the term "non-vocal," and wondered how can someone who can vocalize words and concepts be “non-verbal?”

Based upon my research, and that of others, the majority of the autistic population are gestalt processors, aka "non-verbal." What that means is complex, but boils down to the fact that we don't think and process in "words" but in multi-dimensional semiotics. What you and I consider to be the "verbal" world is like a 50cl shot glass. How we autistics think, our multi-dimensional semiotics, is like a 150l barrel. When a “non-verbal” person is asked a question, the answer may end up occupying the entirety of a specific 150 litre space, but other potentially related 150 litre barrels of prior-knowledge and related information must be assembled, and the probability of the appropriate barrel, or the correct response is calculated. Usually, it’s found that a single barrel isn’t the appropriate choice, thus the contents of multiple 150 liter barrels are sorted, then combined appropriately. Some information is lost in the process (spills), requiring a reassembly. Then, the attempt is made to answer - effectively attempting to empty 150 litres into a 50cl shot glass without spilling a drop. It doesn't work very well.

Now imagine actually physically manipulating full barrels of beer. How exhausting would it be to move multiple barrels around in a short amount of time? So it is to us with verbal conversation. Making the attempt at "verbal" communication requires a lot of energy. It takes a lot of focus. It's physically exhausting. As a personal example, it's why I generally take a week to recover after teaching a 40 hour training session - I'm quite literally drained.

Back to the issue of “verbal” vs. “vocal.” "Verbal" is not necessarily "vocal." Words can be spoken. Words can also be written. Words can be spelled out using assistive tech. On average, autistic people are better at the written than the vocal. We can take our time. We can assemble our thoughts. Thanks to modern word processing, we can revise and edit in a non-linear fashion that isn't necessarily possible with a pen/paper or a typewriter. This effort has already undergone several revisions at this point, and it isn't even complete.

Confounding the verbal communication problem is language. Modern English, as a language, is quite frankly - horrible. It is a mashup of several old languages, most of which we've never learned - like Latin, German, and Middle-English. It's confusing. A ‘fat chance’ and a ‘slim chance’ are the same thing. Why do we have noses that run and feet that smell? In another example, the word ‘good’ has many meanings. If a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

Whorf (1942) notes, “the term 'space,' for instance, does not and cannot mean the same thing to a psychologist as to a physicist. Even if psychologists should firmly resolve to use ‘space’ only with the physicist's meaning, they could not do so, any more than Englishmen could use in English the word 'sentiment' in the meanings which the similarly spelled but functionally different French utterance ‘le sentiment’ has in its native French.”

The many problems with English inform my decision to conduct much of my technical research in German, an entirely more precise language, and the first verbal language that I engaged with as a youngling. When writing translations of technical manuals from Chinese / Japanese, the English versions are often catastrophic failures given the complexity of English. But, in German, words tend to mean just one thing. When a complex word doesn't quite exist, several simpler words can be combined. The word "mate" has many different connotations in English - from the sexual / romantic to the mechanical. A roommate can be platonic companion sharing costs or a potential romantic partner who has moved in. In German, wohngemeinschaft first encapsulates the association - relationship to the location by combining two concepts - wohn (living) and gemeinschaft (community). Zimmer (room) kamerade (companion) isn't really a phrase you would see in everyday German. You would have location / situation - wohngemeinschaft - then relationship - for example, die Verlobte (fiancé, or more precisely, bride-elect) - or the person who is at the location. 

Then there are words that can mean just about anything in any context. Some famous and funny examples can be found on YouTube - Rob Schneider's many meanings of "Dude" or Bernie Mac's many meanings of "Motherf****" will make you laugh. 

Back To Communication

Many parents seek help for their non-vocal autistic children. Speech delay is a common thing for autistics. It takes a long time to learn how to "drive" our amazingly complex and unrestricted quantum field generators. Parents expect to hear "mama" and "dada" within the first year after the child is born. When that doesn't happen, then begin to panic and seek professional help. The literature is full of “interventions” that parents can choose from, all claiming to be “evidence based.”

By way of explanation, consider your garden. When you buy a fruit tree at the nursery, the grower will usually tell you how long it will take for the tree to start bearing fruit. Very few trees will fruit in the first season after planting. Many trees require specific pollinators (other varieties of the same kind of tree + bees / insects) be placed in close proximity, or they will never bear fruit. You accept this, put in the work, and wait patiently for years for the first signs of fruit. 

BUT, no one gave you the owners-manual for your autistic child / family member / friend / colleague / spouse. No one told you how long it would take for that amazing individual to learn how to manage language. No one told you how long it would take, if ever, for your child to vocalize coherently in your chosen language. So, you panic. In your panic, you seek out the quickest / easiest path to what you think will be success. This path is populated by charlatans and other nefarious / evil people who prey upon your hopes / fears and relieve you of your coin.

In my life, my first attempts at vocal communication came in the form of echolalia. I heard, stored, and sorted words and phrases that seemed useful. These came from my primary sources of communication - the radio, TV, and my family. Most of these sources were divorced of context - I had no idea of which words were appropriate to which situations. My immediate family were well-skilled in foul-mouthed sarcasm. Not the most appropriate sources for my echolalia. Trial and error were used to test out my new skill – resulting mostly in error. 

The medical world sees echolalia as a problem / disorder to be cured. Language pathologists exist to help people with problems with language. But, for neurodivergent people, it's not a "problem" or a "disorder" as such. It's a mode of communication. Many autistic people do not do well with language pathologists because echolalia, for us, isn't a disorder - it's a different order. The pathologists attempts to "correct" often cause more problems than they solve. Parents get frustrated at their seemingly wasted money. As you will see, time, patience, and love tend to help more than vigorous therapies.

The years between birth and puberty can be a very frustrating time for parents and autistic children. Imagine having a new roommate who doesn't speak your language and comes from a completely different culture. How do you get along? How do you set rules? How do you set anything? How do you communicate? Eventually, you each learn a bit of the other's culture and preferred mode of communication. You figure it out as you go along, together, respectfully. The same holds true when autistics (children) and non-autistics (parents) meet.

For me, echolalia meant that (with a lot of trial and error - mostly error) I became pretty good at mimicry. In my multi-ethnic / multi-lingual melting pot of city and sschools, I now had a menu of phrases in UK English, Mexican Spanish, German, Russian, and Armenian. I worked hard at sounding correct in each language / dialect. Sometimes, the languages got confused in delivery - to the endless delight of my peers.

But, I found that I could use this style to amuse my classmates - adding accents and flair when reading aloud in class. I could switch from my "BBC presenter voice" to my "Mexican warehouseman voice" with amazing agility. (I continued this when reading aloud to my kids. They were just as amused ;) ) Most notably however, I understood little of what I was reading. I was making the correct sounds, but I was not “literate” in any sense of the word. When I graduated from high school, I was still illiterate - but my echolalia was more refined.

On the other side, when my brain is quite overwhelmed, vocal communication becomes impossible. Pops, clicks, and other sounds (combined with blank / panicked stares) substitute for words. This is the same today, near 50, as it was when I was young. When I was young, it just seemed weird to my peers / friends.

Elsewhere …

In spite of my traumatic past, I did have an interest in dating. But, in part due to the nature of my quantum field generator, I had a great deal of trouble focusing on a single person in the way that they would envision these relationships should work. I didn't quite understand the concept of exclusivity or the differences between platonic / romantic partners. Probably as a result of my past, I tended to see everyone on the same plane (friend / foe - and no other). A classic example of this failure in processing was my first experience with the Sadie Hawkins Dance. 

I love to dance. I love to feel the energy and rhythms. I love to move, sway, flow, ... My empathic nature absorbs the energy in the room. I can dance for hours, non-stop - and I usually have no desire to stop. Thus, on the first occasion where I would be able to attend a Sadie Hawkins Dance (where the girls ask the boys), I completely blundered. You see, I wanted to go. This is an important starting point - I love to dance and I wanted to go and dance. The school was only a block away from my home, so I could easily walk there on my own.  I was asked first by a girl a year my junior, but whom I had known for many years. Of course I said yes. I liked her, she was nice to me, and I love to dance. What could possibly go wrong? Then, another girl asked me. Again, we were friends and had a few classes together. "Would you like to go to Sadie Hawkins?" was her request. My answer, of course was "yes." She, I'm sure now, was implying that her request was to the exclusion of all others. I was simply responding directly to the query. A third girl asked the same question. I gave the same response. To my surprise, and to the shock of the three girls, we all arrived at the dance at about the same time. I had no words to describe what was happening or to help any of them feel any better about my confusion or error. I certainly was no Casanova. To them, I was the biggest jerk in the world. For me, not quite understanding how to escape the situation and also help them to not be mad, frustration led to depression and anger - and retreat from a social life.

I think a lot of what I went through in episodes like these can inform the larger conversation about today's youth and the trouble they're having at school. Why do they lash out? Why are they angry / raging / violent? Why have they retreated from the social world?

Thus, that my college relationships didn't work out is no surprise. Being so far from "home" didn't help either. I was on my own, much too soon for someone of my limited communication / social capabilities. A few rather catastrophic sensory overloads / meltdowns lead to the rapid demise of each and every relationship I was in - platonic / romantic. One meltdown was so spectacularly overwhelming, leading a shutdown that saw me hospitalized for over a month to recover.

It wasn't until I was in my early thirties that I gained the ability to work in the world of the vocal / verbal and express myself extemporaneously / improvisationally.

When speaking with parents about their kids verbal / vocal ‘deficiencies,’ this information tends to devastate them.

• "Isn't there a cure?"

• "Doesn't therapy help?"

• "What about medication?"

The answers to all of these types of questions are (1) everyone is different, (2) everyone develops on their own schedule, (3) communication is happening - let's focus on getting you all on the same page, "speaking" the same language.

The truth about the length of time necessary to develop these abilities can be seen in the results of my research - the optimal time for autistic people to successfully enroll and remain enrolled to the completion of their college degree is between the ages of 45-64. These results speak to the truth of the autistic experience - not to the expectations of their neurotypical family members / parents / care givers.

Remember: autistic people choose to communicate in ways most comfortable to them.

This is why you'll find so many of them / us making friends on social media platforms. In this forum, we can take our time with language and attempt to "get it right." My Baby Boomer friends rail at Millennials with their heads in their devices. "Why can't they put the phone down and talk to people?" Perhaps, the person on the device is communicating in the best / most efficient way that they know how. I know that to be the case for me - preferring the "written" word (BTW - it's taken almost 3 days to compose, revise, revise, revise, and revise this article in it's current form).

I hope that you don't mind this winding, somewhat rambling article on communication. Equally, I hope that you aren't bothered by my injecting some rather frank personal experiences / details. If you've ever been in one of my classes, this article may seem familiar in style. I regularly use my own life and experiences as a setting for the lessons I present. After all, I've found tens of thousands of ways not to do things - why not use them to inform the next generation and help them avoid all the mistakes? ;)

Thanks for reading today. Have a great day.

— December 16, 2023 Note —

Much of what was written here became the basis for two books. No Place for Autism? presents a framework for understanding autism in your spaces and places. I wrote in in late 2022 and it was published in February 2023. Much of it was informed by my path to the classroom as an autistic gestalt processor.

Now, having been a teacher for a while, and not finding a curriculum for language instruction that supports all students, both analytic and gestalt processors, I wrote that book as well. Holistic Language Instruction will be out in 2024.