Communication: Jon Millerton - 4th grade
Parent Input:
No delay in speech and language development is reported. Mr. and Mrs. Millerton indicated
that Jon does not initiate or sustain conversations unless it is regarding his own interest. He
continually directs the conversation and ignores his communication partner, monopolizing the
conversation. No repetitive or stereotyped words or phrases are reported. Regarding play,
Jon’s mother reported that he does not play. He has attempted to participate in baseball,
soccer, karate, and swimming and has quit them all. Jon comes home from school and plays on
the computer. He does enjoy constructive play and has had phases of building numerous tracks
and constructing with Lincoln Logs.
Teacher Input:
Mrs. Freeter reported that Jon likes to tell others information and doesn’t appear to listen to
his conversational partner. If others try to steer the conversation onto other topics, Jon does
not shift and continues to talk about his topic. Mrs. Freeter indicated that Jon will insist that he
knows something or is correct about something, even when he is not right. According to Mrs.
Freeter, this behavior is starting to result in peers being turned off to Jon. Jon does interrupt
his teacher when she is talking with someone else. Mrs. Freeter has started putting a hand up
as a gesture to wait and she indicated that Jon is beginning to respond to that cue. He does not
read cues from his communication partners to know when he has talked too long. Mrs. Freeter
provided an example of Jon following her around the room, continuing to tell her information
about China until she told him it was time to go home. Jon frequently makes statements to
others, such as “I know a better way” and “You won’t understand this, but…” that seem
insensitive. He often corrects mistakes that others, including teachers, make. Jon interprets
everything as black and white and will say, “That’s not what you said,” if he is told that he did
something incorrectly. No repetitive use of language is reported.
Evaluation Team Report:
Jon was noted to follow verbal directions in the classroom fairly well. He does appear to need
to engage in “self-talk” to figure out a situation or question, often talking out loud. This results
in tangential expression; when allowed to do this, Jon can often get to the answer. Jon uses
accurate and descriptive language that is often pedantic and formal when compared to others
of his age. For example, Jon said, “In this economy, it might be easier finding a home than it
was before” and asked the examiner if she could “calculate my percentage of accuracy” on a
test. Pragmatic language is an area of difficulty. Jon does not adjust his conversation for his
partner nor does he relinquish his turn without prompting. He utilizes phrases, such as “And
anyway” to shift the conversation back to his topic. When working with one of the evaluators,
Jon responded well to a 10-second countdown for time left for him to talk. Likewise, he
responded to a “you can tell me 2 more things about that” cue with two fingers held up. Jon
also responded well to “rule” language. For example, during a vocabulary subtest, Jon was
providing extremely lengthy answers and was having difficulty knowing when to stop. The
evaluator told him that the rule was that there was just a short time allowed for answering the
questions and that she would put her hand up as a signal that the time was up. Jon agreed to
this system and immediately responded to the cuing.
Jon present with very literal, black and white interpretation of social and communicative
events. For example, when the librarian asked Jon if he was going to try a different type of
book when he was finished with his Hardy Boys book, he responded, “I don’t know why I have
to change. There’s lots of Hardy Boys books.” During the ADOS, the evaluator was creating a
short story about spring break and Jon indicated, “Well, spring break doesn’t just last one day.”
When asked if he does things that annoy others, Jon responded, “Well, if I’m bothering people,
obviously I do.” Jon engaged in frequent use of the following words and phrases in his
conversation: quite simple, basically, usually, randomly, and anyway. When presented with
pretend play items in the ADOS, Jon said, “This is really cheapy plastic” and “Toys are very
discriminating.” He did not engage in creative play, but commented that the shirt on the action
figure was “British.” Jon did not engage in play when the evaluator initiated a play scheme and
said, “I’m not a playful person.”
Qualitative impairment in communication?
 YES
 NO
Criteria (1 of 4 required):
 Delay in or absence of spoken language unaccompanied by an attempt to
compensate through alternative modes of communication
 Marked impairment in pragmatics or the ability to initiate, sustain or engage in
reciprocal conversations with others
 Stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
 Lack of varied, spontaneous, make believe play or social imitative play appropriate to
this student’s developmental level