ABSTRACT
Young children are tested on the Reynell developmental language scales, and on the sequenced inventory of communication development. The changing nature of the pervasive developmental disorders of childhood further complicates an understanding of the etiology and significance of various functional deficits. There is ample evidence from the studies done by us and many others of pervasive deficits in all areas of language development during the first four to five years in childhood autism. Of the wide range of deficits in linguistic development among children with autism, echolalia has been the most intensively studied. From years four to six, echolalia declines as spontaneous language increases; short phrases typically appear around 4 and half to five years. Roman Jakobson, in an address entitled 'Brain and Language', recently argued that to understand the development of linguistic competence one must look toward the brain and especially to clinical populations whose facility with language has been interrupted by disease or trauma.
