ASHA Highlights for Success in Conversational Speech with Asperger’s Syndrome

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This blog is based on the following presentation from the 2011 ASHA Convention:

Opening the GATE to Conversation for Adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome

Elizabeth Serpentine, fifth year PhD, Penn State University

eac166@psu.edu

Kathryn Drager, PhD, CCC-SLP

Associate Professor, Penn State University

kdd5@psu.edu

Kathie, Elizabeth, Dr. Drager

GATE is a conversational strategy for adolescents and adults with Asperger's syndrome.

G = Greet, A = Ask, T = Think, E = Extend

GATE is being completed as a study at this time, but through this seminar with videos, slides, case studies and presenting, I liked what I heard for the Asperger population who all have social language difficulty. These pragmatic differences in Aspergers manifest themselves in greeting, asking, thinking and extending a conversation.

This presentation highlighted a conversational strategy utilized by individuals with Asperger's to successfully initiate and maintain topics of conversation with communication partners and instructional procedures for GATE.

GATE in action:

• One person with Asperger's paired with a typical communication partner
• All four steps are presented in a one-hour instructional session -- beginning with "greet"
• GATE scripts are given to both people (with rules intricate to the program)
• GATE can eventually grow into small group settings
• Avoid "conversation enders" with questions that can be answered with yes/no

GATE may eventually become a commercial program for the Asperger population. I can foresee a variety of levels for it depending on age and verbal skills (that will be left up to Ms. Serpentine).

Opening a GATE for the SLP now:

Here's how you, the SLP, need to assist any child, adolescent or adult with Asperger's:

• GREET -- refresh yourself with my Thoughts for Thanksgiving Hugs blog about greetings
• ASK -- encourage your "Aspies" to ask questions based on what the other person is talking about
• THINK - let your Aspie know that it is okay to take time to think about what the other person said before responding. Asperger's people are compulsive and don't usually take time to think
• EXTEND -- one more time -- extend the conversation while maintaining the topic

Topic suggestions:

These may be made by the SLP or the student. A fun way might be let the students draw a topic out of a box that both parties have generated (this encompasses more turn taking and communicating. It should also be fun to come up with topics that an Aspie and typical communication partner create). Suggestions might be: television shows, video games, weather, geography, buildings, holidays or food.

Session talk:

I enjoyed speaking to Elizabeth and Dr. Drager after the session. I won't reveal their secrets, but they look a lot alike and their passion for speech therapy and people with Asperger's syndrome is evident. Their common sense approach to conversational strategies with this population is a GATE to success.

"Speech pathologists make good things happen."