Episode Details

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I was sitting in on an ADOS-2 a few months ago with a nonverbal little guy. He used a fair amount of sign language, which got me thinking: do the pragmatic communication problems associated with autism happen in nonverbal or deaf children? After a little Google searching, I found Dr. Aaron Shield, a linguist out of Miami University, who has specialized in this very niche for much of his academic career. Join us today as we dive into this fascinating intersection of deafness and autism. Here are a few topics that we touch on:

• The neuroanatomical similarities and differences between sign and spoken language
• The biggest myths associated with American Sign Language
• Similarities and differences in language acquisition in deaf kids on the spectrum
• Use of the ADOS-2 (and other common assessment tools) with deaf kids.

Note: Aaron did not mention this on the podcast, but he let me know after our interview that it is still clinically appropriate to use the ADI-R in assessing deaf kids with autism.

Cool Things Mentioned

• Group at Children’s Colorado and Boston Children’s Hospital
• Deaf Autism America parent group
• Dr. Shield’s research and contact info: languageshield.com
• bu.edu/deafautism
• Shield, A., Mood, D., Salamy, N., & Henner, J. (to appear, 2020). Issues in the assessment of signed language in deaf children with ASD. In W. Mann (Ed.), Handbook of Language Assessment across Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Deaf Autism America 3rd annual retreat: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10159161778465828&set=gm.3049057738437878&type=3&theater&ifg=1

The Testing Psychologist podcast is now approved for CEU’s!

I’m excited to announce that I’ve partnered with At Health to offer CE credits for podcast episodes! Visit this link to access current and past episodes available for CE credit. You can use code “TTP10” for a discount on ALL the course credits you purchase from At Health!

About Dr. Aaron Shield

A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Aaron Shield received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in Italian Studies in 1999. He holds an M.A. (2004) and Ph.D. (2010) in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he wrote his dissertation on the effects of autism spectrum disorder on the acquisition of American Sign Language by deaf children. He then completed postdoctoral training in Psychology at the University of Chicago and Boston University. Since 2015 he has been Assistant Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Miami University of Ohio, where he c