quality. In this regard, the voice quality of autistic children has been described as being "peculiarly hollow or flat, with poor control of pitch and volume" (Hecht, 1986, p. 112). Another typical characteristic found in autistic children is the use of echoalia, or "meaningless repetition of previously heard words, phrases, and/or sentences" (McCormick & Schiefelbusch, 1984, p. 99). One example of echolalia in autism can be seen in the case study an autistic boy whose mother yelled, "Do you want me to take your shoes off?" when he was throwing a tantrum and kicking his feet against a wall (Hecht, 1986, p. 112). From that time on, the child inappropriately used the same expression each time he experienced any form of anger or frustration.
Despite the unique characteristics of language disorders seen in autistic children, it has nonetheless been reported that the basic development of language ability is similar in both autistic and normal children. For example, studies have indicated that both autistic and normal children show similarities in use of language structures and in the area of sound production and perception (Heht, 1986, p. 112). However, language ability in autistic children is made far more difficult because of problems with language comprehension and conversational competence (Hecht, 1986,
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