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Introductory Abstract

Addressing the Young Autistic Child at his Level of Developmental Delay

Re-claiming Non-Autistic Aspects Through ‘Live Company’

The mental age of the autistic child is like that of a young baby, and so is his communication. All language-development begins with face-to-face play and early baby-games of ‘pure interaction’. The human face is the ‘best cause-and-effect toy ever invented’: always the same but a little different, - responsive and expressive as nothing else. I will describe ‘Mouth- and Face Games’, and the underlying principle of ‘Make it bigger’, as familiar to adults wanting to catch and hold the attention of a baby to engage him in communicative fun-interactions. These fundamental communicative principles also apply to the young autistic child, and develops the idea of making them into actual games with 5 year old autistic children.

Their main function is that of ‘reclaiming’, or ‘tugging’ on, the autistic child’s (or the baby’s) mind to stimulate mental development. What is seen as crucial for communicative development is the adult’s warm, human, lively companionship, i.e. 'Live Company’ (as described by Alvarez (1992) and Trevarthen in various of his papers). This also makes use of the interactive move of ‘as if’ i.e. treating the child as if he understood, as if he knew how and when to take his turn in the interaction, which adults do intuitively with a baby and pre-verbal young child with the aim of nudging him on in his mental development

A further example of this is the much under-used idea of saying to an autistic child, who has got himself stuck in repetitive activities: “I think you are stuck” and “It’s time to do something different”. The autistic child is seen as driven by unconscious and unmanageable anxieties, and he may not realise he could stop, or how to use his mind in other ways. He can sometimes be alerted to this fact, e.g. by the use of urgency in our voice or expectant silences to create an ‘attention-grabbing’ sense of suspense. The adult’s awareness of the young child’s pre-occupation with ‘there and gone: playing with distance’ allows the autistic child’s avoidant behaviours to be made into interactive communications by tapping into non-autistic aspects via ‘live company’ and reclamation.

‘The Away Game’ also uses some of the principles of ‘tugging’ on the child’s mind, as well as generous helpings of playfulness and the important expectation of a sense of humour in the autistic child as a social communication. Absence of playful teasing around the age of 7 months might be one of the earliest indicators of problems in social/communicative development/ autistic features. If the young autistic child’s avoidance of contact and running away is approached with this attitude, this allows re-interpretation into a communicative interactive paradigm, e.g. ‘you mean running away means she does want to play?’