在飞行过程中，语言病理学家坐在患有自闭症的男孩旁边8个小时，能够在沟通方面取得令人难以置信的进步

Life works in mysterious ways. But sometimes everything just falls into place. When speech-language pathologist (SLP) Rachel Romeo was returning from a conference on a long international flight, there was a father and son sitting next to her. Little did everyone know, Rachel and the little kid couldn’t have had a better passenger to travel with.

生命以神秘的方式运作。但有时候，一切都是顺其自然。当语言病理学家雷切尔·罗密欧(Rachel Romeo)参加完一次长途国际航班的会议回来时，坐在她旁边的是一对父子。大家都不知道，瑞秋和孩子找不到比他更好的乘客了。

The father explained that his 10-year-old boy had autism and was nonverbal. He then apologized to Romeo because the 8-hour flight was likely to be difficult for his child and those around him. But challenging behaviors began even before take-off. The boy was “screaming, hitting me, and grabbing for my things. The father repeatedly apologized, but did little else,” Romeo wrote. However, the situation began to change when Romeo started using principals of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), a series of ways to communicate without speaking out loud, to help the boy tell her and his dad his needs.

这位父亲解释说，他10岁的儿子患有自闭症，而且不善言辞。然后他向罗密欧道歉，因为8小时的飞行对他的孩子和他周围的人来说可能会很困难。但挑战性的行为甚至在起飞前就开始了。那个男孩“尖叫着，打我，抓着我的东西。父亲再三道歉，但没有做什么别的。”罗密欧写道。然而，当罗密欧开始使用增强和替代沟通(AAC)的原则时，情况开始发生了变化。

Image credits: Gabrieli Laboratory

According to a study by Boston University, nearly a third of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder “never learn to speak more than a few words.” Nonverbal autism is somewhat poorly researched, and we know quite little about the thought processes of these people. Nevertheless, new research is being carried out, and new technologies are being developed to better understand them.

波士顿大学(Boston University)的一项研究显示，近三分之一被诊断为自闭症谱系障碍(autism spectrum disorder)的人“从未学会说几个字以上”。“非语言自闭症的研究相对较少，我们对这些人的思维过程知之甚少。然而，正在进行新的研究，开发新的技术以更好地了解它们。

VeryWell Health wrote that the term “nonverbal autism” isn’t an official one. “There is no such diagnosis as ‘nonverbal autism.’ In part, that’s because there is no clear line between verbal and nonverbal individuals with autism.”

VeryWell Health写道，“非语言自闭症”并不是一个官方术语。“没有所谓的‘非语言自闭症’这样的诊断。在某种程度上，这是因为自闭症患者在语言和非语言个体之间没有明确的界限。”

No one really knows for sure why some people with autism can’t, or don’t, use spoken language. It puzzles scientists a lot since quite a few nonverbal people on the spectrum can and do choose to communicate using American Sign Language, picture cards, and a range of digital tools.

没有人确切地知道为什么有些自闭症患者不能或不能够使用口语。这让科学家们很困惑，因为光谱上相当多的非言语者能够而且确实选择使用美国手语、图片卡和一系列数字工具进行交流。

“True, some people with autism also have childhood apraxia of speech, a neurological disorder that makes spoken language extremely difficult. But most nonverbal individuals on the autism spectrum don’t have apraxia; they just don’t speak. Clearly, there are differences in brain function that inhibit spoken language, but at this point, there is no agreement on just what those differences are or how they impact any given individual.”

的确，有些自闭症患者在童年时期也有语言失用症，这是一种神经系统紊乱，使口语极其困难。但是自闭症谱系中的大多数非语言个体并没有失用症;他们就是不说话。显然，抑制口语的大脑功能存在差异，但在这一点上，对于这些差异究竟是什么，以及它们如何影响任何特定的个体，人们还没有达成一致。”

More info: Twitter