What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Movie Analysis

The title of the movie that I selected for this assignment was What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Although Gilbert Grape is the main character of this movie, Arnie Grape, his brother, was the one I was watching. Arnie Grape, played exceptionally well by the young Leonardo DiCaprio, is a soon to be 18 year old with a severe case of autism. Autism is a developmental condition that is characterized by significant difficulties in social relationships, communication, repetitive behaviors, and overly restricted interests. Children with this disorder usually will exhibit a mild to severe/profound secondary language impairment. Some of these impairments include difficulty with nonverbal behaviors during communication such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, and proximity to others). As for communication problems, they usually have a limited range of communicative functions.

I could tell that Arnie had autism based on

Arnie didn't really have any major concomitant physical impairments. He only did a few little things such as how he held his fork the wrong way when eating.

b. Cognitive status/intelligence level

As seen in most children with autism, Arnie acts childish for his age and is behind in his cognitive development.

1. Speech

a. Articulation

slurs speech, slurred, prolonged

b. Voice

loud, and high pitched

c. Fluency

very fluent

2. Language (receptive and expressive language)

a. morphology

b. phonology

c. syntax

d. semantics

e. pragmatics

3. He showed no signs of impairment in his vision.

4. Hearing

5. Other behaviors

a. Literacy skills

Although children with autism have difficulty comprehending written text, his reading and writing skills were not shown in the movie.

b. Memory

Arnie's memory seemed to be about average; short-term and long. He was able to remember people and events without a problem.

c. Attention

His attention span was generally pretty normal. He tended to hold interest in the things he was doing.

d. Other relevant behaviors

Some other behaviors

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