Use of the SMiLE Program for Communication Treatment of a Bangladeshi Muslim Adult With Autism

Abstract

Much of the current multicultural research in communication disorders is focused on the Latino and East Asian communities; however, the Muslim immigrant community is a fast-growing community with a specific set of cultural and linguistic characteristics that affect service delivery. Previous research provided information regarding a set of Muslim families and their feelings, goals, and views on having young children with autism. This report provides information on how one family with an adult child with autism feels in regard to their experiences with service providers and their goals for the future. To this end, the authors provide the responses from an in-depth interview with the family of a 24-year-old, nonverbal, male with autism. Responses can assist clinicians in understanding this culture's perspective on disability and how their goals might change with time. Furthermore, the authors provide the outcomes for two semesters of a structured program for verbal language instruction (SMiLE; Wolf-Schein, 2011) completed with a culturally Bangladeshi Muslim adult with autism. Results demonstrated increased verbal production of consonant-vowel (CV) syllables, word approximations, and ability to associate these productions with functional associations. These results suggest that focus on verbal production, even for nonverbal adults, can still result in functional outcomes.