BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//132.216.98.100//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.4// BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20260522T092040EDT-4440OxwiOm@132.216.98.100 DTSTAMP:20260522T132040Z DESCRIPTION: \n\n \n\nThe CRBLM is pleased to present an upcoming symposium on language and autism\, featuring talks by Emily Zane (James Madison Uni versity)\, Alexia Ostrolenk (Autism Alliance of Canada/Université de Montr éal)\, and Aparna Nadig (91ɬ).\n\nThe event will also includ e a poster session on innovative methods for exploring language and commun ication across populations (abstract submission still open until May 19th! ) and break-out discussion sessions.\n\nWhen: Tuesday\, June 16 \, 2026\, 9:30am-3:00pm\n\nWhere: CRBLM offices (2001 91ɬ College Avenue\, 6th fl oor)\n\nLunch and refreshments will be served. \n\nLa présentation se fera en anglais mais il sera possible de participer en français via interpreta tion informelle des questions. \n\n \n\nRegister here.\n\n \n\nSchedule:\n \n9:30-10:00 Coffee reception and welcome\n\n10:00-10:15 Emily Zane — Conc eptual framework for the day (important setup to contextualize the three t alks)\n\n10:20-11:00 (30 min talk\, 10 min Q+A) Alexia Ostrolenk — Atypica l routes to language acquisition in autistic children\n\n11:00-11:10 Break  \n\n11:10-11:50 Aparna Nadig — Learning language from social input in aut ism and expressive language strengths in multilingual adolescents\n\n11:50 -1:30 Lunch and networking & Poster session — Innovative methods for expl oring language and communication across populations (contributions from th e CRBLM community)\n\n1:30-2:10 Emily Zane — Do fluent autistic speakers s hare a “Linguatype?”\n\n2:10-2:20 Break\n\n2:20-3:00 Break-out discussion sessions: Responding to needs raised by shifts in understanding autistic l anguage at different communication levels\n\n \n\n \n\nSpeakers:\n\n \n\nA lexia Ostrolenk (she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Autism Alliance of Canada\, in partnership with Unity Health Toronto. In September 2026\, she will join the Department of Psychiatry and Addictology at Université d e Montréal as an Assistant Professor. Her research focuses on reading and language development in autistic children\, with an emphasis on bridging s cientific inquiry and real-world practice. An engaged science communicator \, she is also the co-founder of ComSciCon-QC\, which has provided free sc ience communication training to over 300 francophone graduate students in Quebec since 2020.\n\n \n\nAtypical routes to language acquisition in auti stic children: How do autistic children come to language? This presentatio n explores alternative developmental pathways to communication in autism. While language development is often understood as fundamentally social\, s ome autistic children appear to access language through different routes. Drawing on research on early interest in written language and unexpected b ilingualism\, I examine how some children may enter language through pathw ays that differ from typical developmental trajectories. These alternative pathways challenge conventional assumptions about how language should dev elop and call for a shift in intervention practices. Rather than treating these trajectories as deviations to be corrected\, they can be understood as meaningful entry points into communication. This perspective highlights the importance of building on children’s existing strengths and interests as a foundation for intervention. It also has practical implications for supporting families\, helping them recognize\, interpret\, and engage with their child’s unique ways of communicating.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nEmily Zane  is an associate professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at James Madison University in Harrisonburg\, Virginia. She is a linguist\, whose research focuses on language expression\, understanding\, and processing b y older autistic children and adults. \n\n \n\nDo fluent autistic speakers share a “Linguatype?”: In traditional accounts of autism\, various identi fiable features of autistic language – e.g.\, echolalia – are interpreted as linguistic errors attributable to an underlying language impairment. Ev en autistic people who speak fluently have sometimes been described as exh ibiting a “hidden” or “subclinical” deficit\, because their spontaneous la nguage contains relatively frequent unconventional semantic and morphosynt actic features. After quickly reviewing these accounts\, I then explore an alternative account\, grounded in linguistics\, where these semantic and  morphosyntactic features are considered as identifiable patterns associate d with an autistic “linguatype” (Zane & Grossman\, 2024\; Zane & Luyster\, 2025) – that is\, a valid linguistic code shared across autistic speakers – somewhat akin to a dialect. To demonstrate how this reinterpretation dr astically changes implications of difference in autistic language use\, I specifically apply the framework to one language pattern that has been ass ociated with autism since the earliest accounts of the condition: The rela tively frequent creation of invented words (neologisms). I will show how r econsidering autistic neologisms as meaningful lexemes\, rather than langu age mistakes\, can yield insights into autistic language and thought. \n\n  \n\n \n\n \n\nAparna Nadig is an Associate Professor at 91ɬ in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her lab studies la nguage development\, social communication and social cognition through an intersectional lens\, focusing on people on the autism spectrum as well as neurotypicals\, and on bilinguals/minority language speakers. In partners hip with autistic collaborators\, practitioners\, and community organizati ons\, her applied lines of work strive to improve social inclusion for peo ple on the autism spectrum and their families.\n\n \n\nLearning language f rom social input in autism and expressive language strengths in multilingu al adolescents\n\nChildren on the autism spectrum have highly varied spoke n language profiles\, with approximately 40% exhibiting skills in the norm al range or above. In this talk I will focus on this subgroup of the autis m spectrum who have age-expected spoken language skills. Since many other children on the autism spectrum face significant communication challenges\ , and reduced early social attention is a defining feature of autism\, lea rning from the spoken language input in the child’s social environment may not necessarily be expected. In the first part of the talk I will review work from my and others’ labs on the nature of the language input availabl e to toddlers and preschoolers on the autism spectrum\, relative to that o f typically-developing children. I will also present evidence indicating t hat children on the spectrum who have participated in research studies\, w hen examined as a group\, do in fact make use of the language they hear\, and benefit from lexically rich and syntactically complex input\, as do ty pically developing children.\n\nLearning multiple languages may\, on the s urface\, seem like an even more unlikely possibility in autism\, given the aforementioned social and communication challenges. This has lead to a co mmonly held belief that bilingualism could further delay language developm ent in children on the spectrum\; yet a body of research demonstrates that there is no such additional delay. In the second part of the talk\, I wil l review evidence from my and other’s labs showing that this subgroup of c hildren on the spectrum can become proficiently bilingual when adequate la nguage exposure is provided. I will also share recent data from multilingu al adolescents showcasing their sophisticated expressive language skills a nd sharing their self-declared linguistic identity and proficiencies.\n\n  \n DTSTART:20260616T133000Z DTEND:20260616T193000Z LOCATION:CRBLM (6th floor\, room 606)\, 91ɬ College 2001\, CA\, QC\, Mon treal\, H3A 1G1\, 2001\, avenue 91ɬ College SUMMARY:Symposium - Shifts in understanding language across the autism spec trum and throughout development URL:/psychology/channels/event/symposium-shifts-unders tanding-language-across-autism-spectrum-and-throughout-development-372933 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR