A Clinician's Perspective on the Communicative Intention in Autism: Call to Reconsider our Understanding of Non-Verbal Behaviours, Private and Inner Speech and Echolalia in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Researchers’ understanding of the meaning of non-verbal behaviours in autism determines, to varying degrees, what practitioners, educators and family members do about these behaviours. There is a lack of consensus in our current understanding of non-verbal behaviours, private and inner speech, and echolalia in children with autism spectrum disorder, as well as a lack of consistency and rigour in terminological use. Even more importantly, there is a lack of rigorous multidimensional lines of evidence to support current views of the meaning of non-verbal behaviours or private and inner speech in autistics. This position paper supports recommendations from a growing number of autism experts for behavioural phenomenological analyses of these complex behaviours, in order to explore the potential communicative intent underlying non-verbal behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorder.