Austistic Children: Bodily Factors in the Use of Language

Abstract

This paper addresses factors other than symbolic capacity that can influence the use of language by children on the autism spectrum. Chief among the issues considered are the influence of bodily experience on the articulation of words and the influence of fantasies concerning bodily relationships on the construction of words and sentences. It is suggested that such considerations may shed light on the behavior of those children on the autism spectrum whose symbolic capacity is greater than might be assumed from their use of language, and also on that of some children with selective mutism.