Prevention of absenteeism and school failure in students with ASD: Improving the transition from primary to secondary school

Unlike the phonological and morphosyntactic aspects of language, which can be developed to varying degrees, the pragmatic aspects of communication are more or less impaired in all persons with autism. Pragmatics consists of several different skills that enable an individual to integrate information during communication and to monitor the mental states of the interlocutor. People with autism often have difficulty understanding the unwritten rules of communication: 

• they do not know how long they should elaborate on a particular topic 

• they do not know exactly when it is their turn to speak 

• they have difficulty determining the interlocutor's communication intentions (e.g. to the question "Do you have a watch", they could answer "I do", without understanding the fact that the interlocutor wanted to know the time) 

• they have great difficulty understanding metaphorical meanings, idioms, phrases, irony, sarcasm 

•  they do not use the so-called „white lies“  and are overly open in communication, which the environment can interpret as intended hostile behavior, etc. (Glumbić, 2009). 

People with autism spectrum disorder have deficits in socio-emotional reciprocity (unable to interact appropriately with other people, have difficulty initiating communication and responding appropriately to other people's communication attempts, and share interests and emotions with others. Difficulties in socio-emotional reciprocity can be explained, at least in part, by the lack of theory of mind. Theory of mind is the ability to attribute certain mental states to ourselves and others, such as opinions, desires, false believes etc. People with autism tend to have a delayed and impaired theory of mind (Lecheler et al., 2021). 

In addition to problems in verbal communication behavior, people with autism also have a number of difficulties in achieving nonverbal communication. People with autism often have difficulties in making and maintaining eye contact. One of the earliest signs of autism is neutral facial expression. Unlike verbal and cognitive abilities, which can change significantly in different periods of life, altered facial expression characterized by rare expression of emotions, insufficient connection of facial expressions with directed gaze and atypical reaction to other people's emotional expression, is one of the most stable features of autism from childhood, through adolescence, to adulthood (Carpenter et al., 2021). People with autism often do not use learned, conventional gestures and body language, which should accompany verbal communication, nor do they use gestures to compensate for deficiencies in verbal communication. The absence of imperative and declarative pointing is a striking feature of autistic disorder, so that many screening instruments include items related to this aspect of nonverbal communication behavior. Imperative pointing involves the use of the index finger in order to obtain the desired object. Parents usually state that a child with autism does not use his index finger that he only tries to reach for the desired object or toy, or to point to the desired object with the parent's hand. There are even greater difficulties in the field of declarative pointing, i.e. using the index finger to share attention with another person. Children with autism do not show distant and interesting objects in order to share their interest with another person, nor do they follow the object that the other person shows with their index finger. The absence of joint attention behavior is manifested in other ways as well. A child with autism does not bring a toy to a parent or other person to share interest, does not enjoy peek-a-boo games, and does not participate spontaneously in games that involve taking turns (e.g. throwing a ball). Some people with autism do not use gestures, body language and facial expression for communication purposes at all. For those who have non-verbal communication, as a rule, it is not sufficiently integrated with verbal communication.

Social communication disorders in people with autism are also characterized by difficulties in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships (APA, 2013). Some people with autism have no interest in their peers. In certain circumstances, children with autism enjoy simple interactions with peers, motor or constructive games, but extremely rarely participate in joint imaginative play. It happens that a person with ASD has a strong need for others, but is not able to adequately achieve and nurture friendly or romantic relationships with other people. With carefully selected interventions, some prosocial behaviors can be learned, but most people with autism have difficulty applying the acquired knowledge in new and unexpected social situations.