Articles | August 01, 1977Bedtime Soliloquies and Linguistic Competence in Autism Christiane A M. Baltaxe and James Q. Simmons Author Notes © 1977 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Article Information Articles | August 01, 1977 Bedtime Soliloquies and Linguistic Competence in Autism Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, August 1977, Vol. 42, 376-393. doi:10.1044/jshd.4203.376 History: Received February 23, 1976 , Accepted July 12, 1976 Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, August 1977, Vol. 42, 376-393. doi:10.1044/jshd.4203.376 History: Received February 23, 1976; Accepted July 12, 1976 Web of Science® Times Cited: 36 View Article Figures Tables PDF PDF Supplemental Data Supplements Multimedia Share Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest Tools Get Citation Citation Baltaxe, C. A. M. & Simmons, J. Q. (1977). Bedtime Soliloquies and Linguistic Competence in Autism. J Speech Hear Disord, 42(3), 376-393. doi: 10.1044/jshd.4203.376. Download citation file: RIS (Zotero) EndNote BibTex Medlars ProCite RefWorks Reference Manager © 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association × Alerts User Alerts You are adding an alert for: Bedtime Soliloquies and Linguistic Competence in Autism You will receive an email whenever this article is corrected, updated, or cited in the literature. You can manage this and all other alerts in My Account The alert will be sent to: Confirm × Sign In or Create a free account to receive alerts. × This study investigates the linguistic competence of an autistic child by means of her bedtime soliloquies. It suggests the usefulness of such monologues as a diagnostic tool and addresses the question of the interrelationship between echolalia and language development. Three bedtime soliloquies of an eight-year-old echolalic autistic child are analyzed along the dimensions of echolalia versus prepositional speech, types of ungrammatically produced, and analysis of connected discourse. The results are compared with those of a normal child reported earlier in the literature. The present analysis demonstrates the difficulties in the judgment of prepositional versus echolalic speech. The types of ungrammaticality were found to be useful indicators of apparent differences between the acquisition process in the normal and the autistic child. They revealed that the autistic child may use specific linguistic strategies only minimally utilized by the normal child. The discourse analysis points up additional differences as well as similarities in the way the autistic subject organizes her utterances in connected discourse. It also shows that the autistic child has specific but limited linguistic competence. It is hypothesized that the autistic subject acquires more functional, useful language by a process of gradually breaking down echolalic patterns. In terms of therapy, these findings would support the use of echolalia as a basis for language training. Subscribe to view more For full access to this article, log in to an existing user account, purchase an annual subscription, or purchase a short-term subscription. Order a Subscription Subscribe Pay Per View Entire Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders content & archive 24-hour access $30.00 Buy Now This Article 24-hour access $15.00 Buy Now Sign In or Create an Account Please sign in using your ASHA.org login. If you do not have an ASHA login, you may register with us for free by creating a new account. Sign In or Create an Account Related Articles Related Topics