Language Disorder Experienced by Children Suffering ASD in

Medan

Ridwan Hanafiah

, Clara R. N. Sitorus

and Muhammad Yusuf

English Literature Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Language Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Language Acquisition.

Abstract: This paper is an attempt to discover the types of language disorder experienced by children suffering autism

spectrum disorder (ASD). The data were in the form of phonemes, words, phrase, clause, and sentences

used in the utterances of 2 children suffering ASD at Yayasan Tali Kasih School Medan. Based on the

analysis, some kinds of language disorder experienced by children with ASD are phonological,

morphological, syntactical, and semantic disorders. It can be inferred that language acquisition of children

with ASD is notably different from normal children. This research also proves that they have difficulty in

language production and language comprehension (mixed expressive-receptive language disorder). Then,

language production in autistic children, especially speaking skill, occurs very slowly and they even take a

long time to be capable of using sentences properly and correctly.

1 INTRODUCTION

(Dulm, 2002) states that psycholinguistic is an

approach adopted by linguists and clinicians to

interpret both normal and disordered language

phenomena. Language disorder deals with

disfluency of language leading to the impairment of

understanding and expressing language and it is the

most prevalent type of communication impairment

affecting children (Suherman, 2016). People with

language disorder may have problems in their daily

communication. (Field, 2003) argues that language

disorder problems may be in the form of receptive,

expressive, or both receptive and expressive. This

case is usually experienced by the children who have

mental disorder such as autism spectrum disorder

(ASD).

The language functioning impairment is one of

the main characteristics of ASD (Tager-Flusberg,

1990). Children who suffer ASD are potential to

have impairments in both receptive and expressive

language disorders. Because of these impairments,

they get failure to make social communication in

their daily life. They also tend to have lack of eye

contact and rarely play game with other people, yet

they have difficulty in constructing social

relationship. That is why they are usually ignored

and neglected, and often misunderstood by the

community. Then, it is also supported by (Kuo,

2017) arguing that several atypical language features

characterize children with ASD’s language

development.

Children with ASD experience language problem

dominantly in language disordered, language

impaired, delayed, or specific language impairment.

Those are also found in varying degrees (Loucas,

2008). The same core of deficits on Autistic children

are also described by American Psychiatric

Association (Filipek, 1999) clarifying that autism is

characterized by the diagnosed autism criteria with

various indications and happened in various

combinations. A child’s communication ability

varies depending upon his or her intellectual and

social development.

Children with autism seem to be reluctant to

speak, especially around unknown people. (Belkadi,

2006). Although some children with ASD speak

relatively fluently which is often accompanied by

word meaning errors, they are unable to involve

much in conversation. Then, the intonation also

tends to flat and wrong in making stress in speech.

The syntactic ability is also delayed because they

often echolalia (Indah & Abdurrahman, 2008).

Some problems faced by children with ASD are

1280

Hanaﬁah, R., Sitorus, C. and Yusuf, M.

Language Disorder Experienced by Children Suffering ASD in Medan.

DOI: 10.5220/0010071612801285

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1280-1285

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

acquiring a well-speech process and comprehending

the speech for social interaction experienced. In fact,

they need to be treated earlier.

There are some previous researches dealing with

children with ASD. (Leonard and Deevy, 2004) in

their study explore the children having specific

language impairment in terms of their lexical

abilities. (Rice, 2005) conducted a research dealing

with description of particular deficits in linguistics

along with cognitive and linguistic skills connection.

(Wicaksono, 2013) also conducted a research to find

out language phenomenon on slow learner autistic

child aged 13 years old. He did not only focus on

sentences but also verb, noun, and numeral. As a

result, he concluded that the language of autistic boy

was very simple, because the autistic only said in

one word and two words without giving the subject.

Based on the illustration in advance, the researchers

want to discover the types of language disorders

experienced are by autistic children at Yayasan Tali

Kasih school in Medan and this research is different

from the previous researches in terms of subjects

and focus of the research.

The school has differences from other schools,

where students are taught differently from a normal

person. All the students undergo mental disorder,

called autism, so they are taught with different

teaching methods. Based on that fact, the researchers

have decided to do some observation in that school

and took two children with autism randomly to be

the subjects of this research.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Psycholinguistics

(Lado, 1976) argues that psycholinguistics is a

branch of linguistic combining psychology and

linguistics. (Aitchison, 1998) states that

psycholinguistics is focused on the relationship

between the human mind and the language. The

study of psycholinguistics examines how we

develop, perceive, and produce language.

Meanwhile, (Hatch, 1983) defines that this branch of

linguistics is focus on three aspects of language

competence; acquisition, comprehension, and

production. In short, psycholinguistics is the

combination of two disciplines namely psychology

and linguistics dealing with mind and language.

2.2 Language Disorder

The ability to speak and understand language is

impaired due to several factors, such as damage to

brain portion which is responsible for language

(Steinberg, 2001). Since language and thought

cannot be separated and thought is reflected in

language use, this condition is called language

disorder. (Rao, 2007) asserts that language disorder

is the impairment in using or comprehending

language including some aspects namely the form,

the content, and or the function in any combination.

To sum up, language disorder is a specific

impairment in understanding and sharing thoughts

and ideas which involves the processing of linguistic

information. It is often utilized as general term

referring to abnormalities in mother tongue or native

language.

Language disorder in children shows large

variation. (Simanjuntak, 1987) explains that children

try to speak their first words between 9-18 months.

Then, language is possible to be delayed, impaired,

or both combination of delayed and impaired. This

means that children suffering disorder experience

language comprehension and production

development more slowly in contrast to children

who have the same age.

2.3 Types of Language Disorder

Language disorder is divided into expressive and

receptive. A person with expressive language

disorder has difficulty in using language while a

person with receptive language disorder has

difficulty in understanding language. Besides,

(Field, 2003) argues that the types of language

disorder may be expressive (impaired language

production), receptive (impaired language

comprehension), or combination of both.

(American Psychiatric Association, 1994) assert

that expressive language disorder has some

linguistic features include a limited amount of

speech, weak of vocabulary skill, difficulty

expressing ideas, slow rate of language

development, and so on. In the contrary with

expressive language disorder, receptive language

disorder has the symptom including not seeming to

listen, parroting words (echolalia), etc. The last one,

Mixed expressive-receptive language disorder (Tots

cited in Purwaningsih, 2011), is identified as

developmental delays and difficulties in the

capability of comprehending spoken language and

speech production. A person who has mixed

receptive-expressive language disorder will have the

Language Disorder Experienced by Children Suffering ASD in Medan

1281

incapability of comprehending, and or using words

in context, expressing ideas, etc.

2.4 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

This disorder is also generally characterised by

marked and enduring impairments within the areas

of communication, behaviours, and social interaction

(Volkmar, 2005). This is the reason why autistic

people have great problem in language production

such as daily conversation because it is the area of

language production. Additionally, (Rofi, 2011)

asserts that the problems that may be experienced in

terms of language production cover phonology,

syntax, semantics, or pragmatics aspects.

3 METHOD

This research employed qualitative research. Miles

and Huberman (Hanafiah, 2016) assert that this

method is used to describe the data dealing with

meanings of those we are researching, and it is also

applicable as the basis of work approach and has

become the main element in research of certain

social sciences. The source of the data was the

utterances produced by 2 children (one girl and one

boy) suffering ASD at Yayasan Tali Kasih Medan.

The boy was 11 years old and was diagnosed as a

pure autism and experienced speech delay.

Meanwhile, the other one, girl, was 12 years old and

was also diagnosed as an autism with mental

disorder (hyperactive) and also had speech delay.

The data were in the form of phonemes, words,

phrase, clause, and sentences used in their

utterances. The procedures of collecting data in this

study were direct observation of the events or

objects, interviews with those involved in the events,

and the documentation.

4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Findings

The researchers classified and described the data

obtained through observation and interview directly

with children with ASD at Yayasan Tali Kasih

school in Medan. From the data that have been

analyzed, there are only four kinds of disorder

discovered, they are phonological, morphological,

syntactical disorder, and semantic disorders.

4.1.1 Phonological Disorder

Phonological disorder is one of language problems

which are found in autistic children speech. It occurs

when autistic children’s speech have phonological

errors in the case of substitution, omission, and

addition of some phoneme in their words. These

three processes that occur in the speech of the

autistic children prove that the normal pronunciation

and the phonemes they expressed are not the same.

Of course, this also proves that the development of

children with autism in language is very slow if we

consider their age. They still have difficulty in

mentioning some phonemes such as /r/, /s/, /k/, /g/,

/m/, /t/, etc. Strangely, sometimes, processes like

substitution, omission and addition do not occur in

every word. But, sometimes they can mention the

phonemes correctly. It is also a proof that they have

learned a lot and this is the good impact of educating

autistic children. This phenomenon could be seen in

the conversation discourse (in Bahasa) below:

Data 1, with Lv.

Rch : Lv, kakak itu sedang apa? (Lv, what is

she doing?

Lv : Memulis

Rch : Bagus. Lv pintar. (Good. Lv is clever)

Based on data 1, Lv said memulis which should

be pronounced menulis. In the word memulis

denotes the formation of a prefix men- tulis, but it

also denotes the substitution of phoneme /n/ spoken

becomes phoneme /m/.

4.1.2 Morphological Disorder

The process of morphology is the process of word

formation. Most words are formed by combining

different components. The most basic word forming

process is through affixes and it is part of

morphological process. Based on the analysis of, it

shows that both autistic children still have difficulty

in saying the formation of affixation, especially the

form of prefix. So far, there is no interruption in the

suffix formation. But, from the data, it was proven

that both autistic children understand what the

teacher and researcher have said to them and they

responded it. The example can be observed as the

following interaction.

Data 2, with Joy.

Tch : Halo Joy! Apa kabar? (Hello, Joy. How are

you?

Joy : Halo! Baik, bu. (Hello, I am fine, mam.)

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

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Tch : Joy tau tidak, kaki digunakan untuk apa?

(Joy, do you know the function of feet?)

Joy : Kaki jala.

Tch : Coba katakan sekali lagi? (repeat once

again?)

Joy : Kaki jalan.

Tch : Iya pintar. Coba ikuti kakak, sebutkan

berjalan. (Yes, good. Try to follow me, say

‘walk’)

Ag : Bejala.

Tch : Ya bagus. (Yes, good)

In data 2, the first answer given by Joy did not

succeed in forming a prefix ber- in the word

berjalan but simply pronounced jala. After the

therapist performed the repetition, Joy's

pronunciation changed, beginning to show that Joy

could form an affix on the word jala to jalan then

became bejala. Although there is still omission of

phoneme/r/ and phoneme /n/ in the word berjalan,

The formation of prefix ber-n in Joy’s language

formed by parroting way of speech. Children with

autism have a difficulty in this affixation. The ability

of morphological process formation in children aged

8-13 years of autism is very far behind than the

ability of morphological process formation in

normal children aged 8-13 years. The formation of

prefixes, suffixes, and infixes has been perfectly

mastered by normal children aged 8-13 years, while

not yet perfectly mastered in children aged 8-13

autism.

4.1.3 Syntactical Disorder

This disorder can be found when autistic children

utter a sentence with the wrong structure and pattern.

They may spontaneously tell a few sentences with

incorrect pattern so that the sentences become less

effective. They also often master the language of

others and repeat it. This kind of thing is called

Echolalia.

Data 3, with Lv.

Rch : Tadi diantar Ayah? Naik apa? (You were

brought here by your father? By what?)

Lv : Diantar Ayah motor.

Rch : Oh, diantar Ayah naik motor ya? (Oh, you

were taken a ride by motorcycle, right?

Lv : Diantar motor sama Ayah.

From the data 3, it can be observed that Lv has

shown Echolalia phenomenon. There is a repetition

pronounced by him and the structure of the sentence

also changed even though the point that he wants to

delivered is same. His intention was that he was

escorted by his father to school by motorcycle. But

because of his disability, it is rather difficult to say

the words with the correct pattern and he had to

form repetition. The analyses also elucidates that

both children had syntactic disorder. In their age,

they should be able to tell a story with a long

sentence, not with basic sentences anymore. People

around them will only understand those words

because they have good semantic and pragmatic

skills.

4.1.4 Semantic Disorder

Talking about semantic disorder in autism, (Lord

and Paul, 1997) describes that children suffering

autism get problems in the meaning comprehension

of what is said to them. This phenomenon is

portrayed in the data below.

Data 4, with Joy.

Rch : Pagi, Joy! Ayah ada dimana? (Good

morning, Joy. Where is your father?)

Joy : Di rumah kak. (At home, sister)

Rch : Oh, Papa di rumah ya? (oh, is your father at

home)

Joy : (silent and felt dizzy)

Rch : Papa ada dimana, Joy?(where is father,

Joy?)

Joy : (silent and did not answer then he started

scratching the paper on the table)

From data above, Joy did not have ability to

understand the meaning of what was said to her.

The researcher asked “where is her father?” by using

word ayah (father), she could answer it. But when

the researcher changed the word ayah (father) with

papa (father), she did not understand what the

researcher said to her however she was busy

scratching paper on her desk. Joy might have

difficulty with the meaning of utterance that she

heard “papa”. She did not understand that the

meaning of ayah and papa is same. At the age of 12,

she doesn’t understand the meaning of that word and

it proves that Joy suffers semantic disorder.

4.2 Discussion

For normal children, the aspect of language such as

phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics might

develop well and so might the comprehension. But,

it is different from children with ASD. Their

language and communication are disordered. Based

on the data analysis, Lv and Joy, who suffer ASD,

Language Disorder Experienced by Children Suffering ASD in Medan

1283

have difficulty in both language production and

language comprehension. They have language

problems with four aspect of linguistics;

phonological, morphological, syntactical, and

semantic disorders. It shows that the symptoms or

characteristics of expressive and receptive are exist

on them. Expressive language disorder deals with

spoken language usage. Meanwhile, receptive

language disorder deals a lot with how and what

people said and comprehended of spoken language.

The researcher found that from 20 data, 16 data are

related to expressive language disorder and 4 data

are related to the receptive language disorder. Both

language disorders are related other, but the

dominant type is expressive language disorder.

5 CONCLUSION AND

SUGGESTION

After analyzing the data, it leads to the conclusion

that children suffering ASD experienced language

disorder related to four aspects of language, namely

phonological, morphological, syntactical, and

semantic disorders. They have impairment in

producing words and utterances and difficulty in

understanding the meaning of word spoken by

someone. Furthermore, they have expressive and

receptive language development disorder, and those

are included into mixed expressive-receptive

language disorder.

It is also recommended for parents help the

child's language development in order to have good

language skills by building an intensive

communication. For autistic school

teachers/therapist, it is advisable to help increase the

child's mastery of the various forms of vocabulary,

understand the concept and the tough personality of

autistic children. Then, the other researchers who

want to conduct similar research about language

disorder can examine the other areas such as

language acquisition and production.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writers would like to address their gratitude and

thankfulness to the students, headmaster and the

therapist of Yayasan Tali Kasih School Medan for

the help in accomplishing this research. Then, the

writers also express their appreciation to English

literature department, faculty of cultural sciences,

Universitas Sumatera Utara, for the permission and

support to conduct this study.

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