<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">Thank you to everyone who responded, both to me directly and on this wonderful resource, to my question about the criteria for determining a child's 'real' words. Two ideas particularly helpful to me resulted from this discussion. The first was that I consider my autistic son’s ‘real’ words to be those that meet the criteria of being consistent, meaningful, appropriate, communicative, extended to multiple exemplars, and relatively permanent, as conventional symbolic adult words are.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In my son’s case, few if any of his 87 earlier productions before his word spurt meet these criteria, especially in form.</SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">The second useful idea is to regard his earlier productions as having aspects of these criteria which are acquired at different times.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ll<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>try to devise a taxonomy to analyse the development of these aspects over the word’s history, looking at the changes in his acquisition of understanding, form and meaning as a continuum, which, in the case of autistic children, may not always result in a conventional word with appropriate usage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">I agree with Bruno Estigarribia who wrote that if he hadn’t been a linguist he would have missed his son’s<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>first ‘word’ (I’m now hopelessly self-conscious about what to call this).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In my case, having a very language-delayed, actually language-averse, child, and being a starter linguist myself made me hyper-aware of any demonstration of receptive language and too eager to assign word status to any intentional gesture and vocalization, though our early communication with our son was dependent on our recognition and validation of all his idiosyncratic productions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""> <O:P></O:P></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">Deborah Gibson<SPAN style=""></SPAN></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><SPAN style="">Ph.D student</SPAN></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">Dept of Language and Literacy<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">Faculty of Education<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="">UBC<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><A href="mailto:debgibson@telus.net"><SPAN style="text-decoration: none; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">debgibson@telus.net</FONT></SPAN></A><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style=""> <O:P></O:P></SPAN></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN lang="EN-GB"> <O:P></O:P></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>