1. AUTISM, PRESUPPOSITION, & RELEVANCE THEORY REGINA RAMOS TESL 447 PRAGMATICS SPRING 2016

2. RATIONALE & BIAS: NO ONE WANTED TO “DEAL WITH THESE KIDS” Grew up with my cousin Phillip, who has high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Worked with autistic children in mainstream environments as a karate instructor, camp counselor, director, one-on-one assistant, clinical and student teaching experiences. Had issues with communicating with autistic children and had a strong bias between “normal kids” and “having to deal with ‘those kids’” in the classroom. “Why did the special needs students make me feel uncomfortable as a teacher?” Decided to take a break for 4 years due to strong bias and discontent in public education. (Biases are not always negative if you decide to research!)

3. WHAT IS PRESUPPOSITION? By definition, presupposition is the implicit meaning involving an utterance that does not need to be asserted (Grundy, 2008). Theory of Mind: Autistic people lack specific strengths in language use, specifically with meaning. Understanding mental state words is related to theory-out-of mind development in which children explain and predict their own and others’ mental states (Dennis, Lazenby, & Lockyer, 2001). Autism issues: Surian also emphasizes that the weak central coherence hypothesis in autistic children and adults is stemmed by their reduced ability to process global and contextual information in language (Surian, 2012).

4. WHAT IS RELEVANCE THEORY? Relevance is an everyday issue with people who are on the autism spectrum. Relevance theory is a theory of inferential pragmatics that aims to explain how the hearer interprets the speaker’s meaning on the basis of contextual factors (Sperber & Wilson, 1995). Autism issues: Individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high functioning autism are usually willing to communicate, but because of pragmatic problems, they have difficulty in communicating in a relevant manner (Bogashina, 2005). They have “obsessions”. Additionally, it is possible that children with autism may be over-selective to a stimulus, which is not adequate in terms of comprehension, and this can inhibit accessing the relevant information (Loukusa et al., 2006).

5. PREPARATION FOR DATA COLLECTION Dir. Alexandra Shiva. Perf. Emilio Amigo, Marideth Bridges, Caroline McKenzie, Jessica Sullivan. HBO Documentary Films, 2015. For twelve weeks, the film focused on Dr. Emilio Amigo and his staff as they organized a spring formal dance for their autistic clients at a local nightclub. During this period, the staff provided therapy sessions to strengthen the clients’ social skills, combat behavioral issues, and increased their confidence. Additionally, the staff provided dance lessons and set up “dates” between their clientele

6. CLIENTS Marideth Bridges A sixteen-year-old girl with Asperger’s Syndrome. She is obsessed with Winston Churchill, French bulldogs, non-fiction books, random facts, and researching.

7. CLIENT… Caroline McKenzie A nineteen-year-old college student who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Caroline has an irrational fear of public transportation, despises smokers, and doesn’t like certain fabrics.

8. CLIENT Jessica Sullivan A twenty-two year old woman living with high functioning autism. Overall, Jessica is very harsh and demanding toward many people, but does not understand how others perceive her. Jessica thrives with routine and her obsessive use of counting and measuring.

9. EXAMPLE OF AUTISM & PRESUPPOSITION Jessica is working at her bakery job, Food for Thought. Her boss, Dr. Todd (psychologist), walks into the room as Jessica is baking. The phone suddenly rings. *Dr. Todd: (To Jessica) Can you get the phone? **Jessica: Can you get it? ‘Cause I’m not good with business calls. It’s not like I don’t want to answer. It’s just I don’t know what to say and I don’t normally do that. So I assume that’s other people’s responsibilities… Dr. Todd: (interrupts) Well… Sometimes bosses will ask that kind of thing in like a collegial, collaborative kind of way, when it’s just a nice way of saying “Do it.”

10. EXAMPLE AUTISM & RELEVANCE THEORY [Marideth and her family sit down for dinner. Her parents, ask their daughter about the social studies test she had.] Mom: It was social studies today right? Marideth: Yup. Australia remained isolated a lot longer than the Americas. A lot of marsupials only live in Australia. They have the Great Barrier Reef there. [Family talks about Australia to include Marideth with the conversation. Marideth abruptly walks away and comes back.] *Marideth (interrupts): Do you think I can visit an Indian reservation? Dad: Sure! But I don’t think it would be something that you thought it would be.

11. WHAT I LEARNED… I can change my perspective toward people with autism by learning new ways to communicate with them. Most people with autism do not know their deficits. As teachers, we must build their strengths and new skills until they do not notice their personal inadequacies. https://vimeo.com/117182863 https://vimeo.com/117182863

12. QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. –Ignacio Estrada, Math Teacher

13. REFERENCE LIST Grundy, P. (2008). Doing Pragmatics. London: Hodder Education. Surian, L. (2012). Access to Language, Social Cognition, and Lexical Development in Autism. Access to Language and Cognitive Development, 135, 135-158. Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995) Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2 nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Loukusa, S., Leinonen, E., Kuusikko, S., Jussila, K., Mattila, M.-L., Ryder, N., Ebeling, H., Moilanen, I. (2006). Use of Context in Pragmatic Language Comprehension by Children with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 6, 1049- 1059. How to Dance In Ohio. Dir. Alexandra Shiva. Perf. Emilio Amigo, Marideth Bridges, Caroline McKenzie, Jessica Sullivan. HBO Documentary Films, 2015.

14. SUGGESTED VIEWING General Autism Information & Theories: The Autism Enigma (2012) https://www.autismspeaks.org Documentaries About High Functioning ASD & Asperger’s: The Boy Inside (2006) The Horse Boy (2009) Normal People Scare Me (2006) Teaching Techniques & Research About Non-Verbal Autistic Individuals: A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism (2010)