Children with autism may increase their chances of living independent lives in the future if they are taught to “talk things through” in their heads before making decisions, new research suggests. According to Reuters, psychologists at Durham University have found that such “inner speech” improves learning ability and communications skills.
“Most people will ‘think in words’ when trying to solve problems, which helps with planning particularly complicated tasks,” said lead researcher David Williams.
Williams’ team found that the mechanism used during inner speech already exists in people with autism, but it isn’t often engaged. Children without autism, for example, only tend to think out loud up until age 7. By then, they’ve learned to think in their heads to try and solve problems. By contrast, autistic kids miss out on communicative exchanges when they are young, which hampers their ability to develop the skill later in life.
“Children with autism probably aren’t doing this thinking in their heads, but are continuing on with a visual thinking strategy,” Williams told Reuters during a telephone interview. “So this is the time, at around six or seven years old, that these teaching methods would be most helpful.”
Learning to develop inner speech is likely to help autistic children do better in school as well as decrease some of the repetitive behaviors observed in people with autism, the study found. Teaching children to “think in words” is the best strategy for promoting this skill.
According to Reuters, autistic people often have poor communication skills and experience difficulty in social situations. The condition affects around one percent of the worldwide population.
