**1. Introduction**

Communication is the base of human interaction. It is a process of sharing ideas, feeling, needs and desires through spoken and written word, signal, sounds, gestures, signs, pictures, symbols, music and body language Communication lends to the social and cognitive devel‐ opment of human beings. It helps in building relationships, acquiring knowledge, and taking decisions. Communication is a powerful tool, an eloquent weapon, a manipulative agent, a distinctive attribute and as recognisable as appearance of an individual.. From the most primitive to the most modern human being, communication as seen as the means to gain control over one's environment and to take one's personal and social needs forward. The ability to communicate and the selection of mode of communication varies from person to person. The most advanced the ability, the greater the learning capacity, and vice versa. Deficits in communication skills can prevent people from realizing their potentials. A communication deficit or disorder is reflected in the inability to receive and process or interpret and use concepts of linguistic symbol systems.

Autism is a developmental disability that affects the way a child's perceives the world and learns from his or her life experiences. Even among the most complex disabilities, autism remains an enigma [1]. It is the frequently occurring form of a group of disorders known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The Autism Society of America [2] has defined it as a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Persons with autism have deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities. However, as autism is a spectrum disorder, its effects may vary from person to person. Some may be severely affected and others less so. Occurrence of autism in

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a child may affect such core human behaviours as social interaction, ability to communicate ideas and feelings, imagination, and establishment of relationships with others [3]. Children with autism often are self-absorbed and appear lost in their own world. They are unable to successfully communicate and interact with others. They may have difficulty developing both receptive and expressive language skills. They also may have difficulty in using and under‐ standing nonverbal communication as body posture, hand gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions [4]

### **2. Autism and the language pattern**

In typically growing children, communication and language emerge as an outcome of a neural integrity that helps them function in early social exchanges with parents or caregivers. These interactive behaviours are essential for the cognitive, affective and social growth that lead to development of communication and language skills. In case of children with autism there may be a relationship between atypical central nervous system functioning and impairments in communication and language [5]. The functional differences between typical children and those with autism may contribute to learning styles and strategies that interfere with acquis‐ ition of communication and language skills. Language pattern in autism may be understood well in the context of how nonverbal and verbal communication emerge in children with autism


skills. However, many may suffer with dysprosody, and voice impairments as pitch and volume. These result in monotonous and staid speech patterns. With respect to language, the morphological and syntactical abilities develop slowly but in typical manner. The major difficulties faced by children are in encoding meaning relevant to conversation, meaningful interpretation of verbal messages, semantic confusion specific to temporal sequencing, and poor sensing of semantic relationships.

With the variety of language and communication issues discussed above, children with autism require appropriate and systematic intervention in this area. An intervention is deemed appropriate if it provides improvement in the child's functional communicative abilities. Over the years, development of language and communication skills has become the core of autism intervention efforts. Several methods and strategies have been used. Among such methods is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system.
