Cognitive profiles and social‐communicative functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder
- 29 July 2002
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
- Vol. 43 (6), 807-821
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00092
Abstract
Background: Whether there is an unusual degree of unevenness in the cognitive abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and whether different cognitive profiles among children with ASD might index etiologically significant subgroups are questions of continued debate in autism research. Method: The Differential Ability Scales (DAS) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) were used to examine profiles of verbal and nonverbal abilities and their relationship to autistic symptomatology in 120 relatively high‐functioning children with ADI‐confirmed diagnoses of autism. Results: Discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal ability scores occurred at a significantly higher rate than in the DAS normative sample (30%) in both a younger group of 73 children (56%) with a mean age of 5;5 and an older group of 47 children (62%) with a mean age of 8;11. Discrepancies were mainly in favor of nonverbal ability in the younger group, but occurred equally in favor of verbal and nonverbal abilities in the older group. Comparison of the two age groups suggested a growing dissociation between verbal and nonverbal (and particularly visual processing) skills with age. In the older group, children with discrepantly higher nonverbal abilities demonstrated significantly greater impairment in social functioning, as measured on the ADOS, independent of absolute level of verbal and overall ability. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate a high rate of uneven cognitive development in children with ASD. Indications of a dissociation between verbal and visual‐perceptual skills among the older children, and the specific association of discrepantly high nonverbal skills with increased social symptoms suggest that the nonverbal > verbal profile may index an etiologically significant subtype of autism.Keywords
This publication has 43 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Familial Aggregation of the Lesser Variant in Biological and Nonbiological Relatives of PDD Probands: a Family History StudyJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2000
- Neuropsychological Profiles of Children with Asperger Syndrome and AutismAutism, 1999
- Subtypes of Pervasive Developmental Disorder: Clinical CharacteristicsChild Neuropsychology, 1999
- AutismInternational Review of Psychiatry, 1999
- Crucial differences between developmental cognitive neuroscience and adult neuropsychologyDevelopmental Neuropsychology, 1997
- Head Circumference Measurements in Children With AutismJournal of Child Neurology, 1996
- Head Circumference in Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental DisordersJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1996
- Validity and Neuropsychological Characterization of Asperger Syndrome: Convergence with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities SyndromeJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1995
- Wechsler IQ Profile and Theory of Mind in Autism: A Research NoteJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1994
- A Case‐Control Family History Study of AutismJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1994