By: Cristina Martínez
M.B.A, M.S, BCBA, LBA
Language,
communication ...
are they the same?
I recently heard a phrase that, like a well-written verse, I kept in my repertoire of interesting concepts and that, inevitably, fits into the system of thought that guides my professional practice, but also the daily exercise of being human. Unfortunately, I did not keep the quote and its author cannot be recognized here, but his idea is "Language is a noun, not a verb", and, although it may seem a Kantian categorical imperative, this blog is a product of it.
Language is the category that names a symbolic system which communicates by means of signs and sound sequences, more or less shared. But it is a construct, which actually relies on two basic principles inherent to the human condition: the need and the intention to communicate both thought and affect. The code for internalizing, processing, and expressing is as creative and diverse as countries, cultures, and histories are recorded, sono known condition imposes limits on it; not even autism.
Communication disorder is a relevant factor in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). What is interesting is that several authors even explain the existence of stereotyped behavioral manifestations, sometimes self-injurious and, in general, disruptive, as learned ways to communicate feelings, desires, or needs, mediated by a strong limitation in the affective, cognitive, and social order. Seen in this way, the importance of communication in people with ASD as a basic element whose alteration mediates their problematic behavioral expression is indisputable.
Unfortunately, people with ASD face two major challenges in this regard: The first one, the dissonance that implies the communicative need versus the deficiency of personal resources to execute it. The other is the difficulty in learning and reproducing the codes that the people around them identify and share. For many people diagnosed with this disorder, the identification of the resource, the method, the alternative way to make their voices heard does not manifest itself or is limited to its most primary form.
The main problem, perhaps, lies in the fact that all communication implies a relationship; an exchange or feedback that in the case of people with ASD, demands effort, training, patience, intention, and creativity. For many families, this conflict constitutes a dead end, a labyrinth that, in the common ideology, would only be decipherable if miraculously the person with ASD could begin to speak, to understand and use the "normal" codes shared by the majority. This miracle will probably not happen because the real solution lies in the possibility of opening other doors, of taking other paths. The variants are as diverse as there are people and families and, many times, they do not go hand in hand with classic language but with different ways of communicating: signs, gestures, or technological mediation. Understanding this phenomenon and training to develop alternative skills that connect and communicate is one of the fundamental objectives of ABA.
More than the effort to mediate and accelerate the process of learning and generalization of these skills, the interventions specific to ABA constitute a system which scientific analysis has demonstrated as effective. ABA understands the diversity of environments, their changes, as well as the continuous need to evaluate and readjust the intervention plans by integrating tools from psychology, sociology, technology...
Thus, Functional Communication Training (FCT) is one of the therapies most frequently used by analysts in their professional practice, which aims to identify the purpose of a problematic behavior and assist in learning a new way of communicating that involves a similar or lesser, more appropriate, effort. It aims, in essence, to facilitate exchange tools that satisfy communication needs in a functional way. This therapy, in turn, can be supported by other systems, called AACS (Alternative and Augmentative Communication Systems).
AACS are divided into two main groups: aided and unaided. The first group includes those systems that require physical or electronic assistance for their implementation, such as: PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), PCS (Picture Communication Symbols), Bliss System (logographic signs based on the represented word that can be combined to form multiple words), SGD (Speech-Generating Devices), among others.
Unaided systems do not require external assistance except for the body itself and its resources. Some of them are: Bimodal Communication (simultaneous use of speech and sign), Sign Language, Cued speech (lip-reading support system with gestural components) and Key Word Signing (KWS).
The broad spectrum of options for communication training for people with ASD from ABA therapy paves the path of education and learning for many children, families, and communities around the world. It overcomes the unfairly imposed barriers that place verbal language as the only admissible path for communication and the happy development of the human being, and it defends that expressing, showing, transmitting, gesturing, signing, understanding are legitimate ways to communicate.
Because language is a noun, not a verb.
