Abstract
In this research, we studied the language and communication skills of preschool children with a diagnosis of autistic syndrome disorder (ASD) (n = 51) compared to children with other developmental disorders (DD) (n = 42), using direct measures and parental reports when assessing the development of language and communication. As a novelty, this research studied a sample of children with low language and communication skills. We found a high correlation between direct measures and parental reports for both populations. Therefore, we propose that combining the information supplied by direct measures together with that supplied by parental reports would be a suitable strategy for language assessment in these populations. In addition, the results show a delay in language comprehension with respect to language production in children with ASD, along with many difficulties with non-verbal communication, compared to children with other developmental disorders (DD). We also found significant differences between both groups with respect to lexical categories. The differences in language and communication profiles of children with ASD compared to children with other DD might have some implications for diagnoses and language intervention in these populations.
Highlights
Language difficulties are a crucial symptom in defining the Autism Disorder Spectrum (ASD) since children with this disorder show a deficit in the development of social and communicational interaction [1]
We compared the performance of the scores of MacArthur communicative development inventories (MCDI) for vocabulary and the direct measures of VABS-II and MSEL tests for both language comprehension and production, collapsing both groups: for MCDI and VABS surveys, the correlations scored the values ρ = 0.608, p < 0.002 for language comprehension and the values ρ = 0.795, p < 0.002 for language production; for MCDI and Mullen test, the correlations scored the values ρ = 0.462, p < 0.02 for language comprehension and the values ρ = 0.872, p < 0.002 for language production; for VABS and MSEL test, the correlations scored the values ρ = 0.57, p < 0.02 for language comprehension and the values ρ = 0.705, p < 0.02 for language production
The results found in this research might have implications for the assessment of children with low language and communication skills: the consistency between different measures supports the use of direct measures and parental reports for therapists working with children with ASD and other DD
Summary
Language difficulties are a crucial symptom in defining the Autism Disorder Spectrum (ASD) since children with this disorder show a deficit in the development of social and communicational interaction [1]. Previous studies on children with ASD have found patterns of language development and gestures in language production and comprehension that are atypical [3,4,5]. The language skills found in older children with ASD are predicted by the early use of gestures [6,7] and early language performance [5,8]. The study of communicative skills in children with ASD presents some difficulties. Direct measures might not be suitable when children have very low levels of language comprehension and production [9]. Other additional difficulties could be a lack of pragmatic comprehension of the situations to be evaluated, a lack of empathy with the evaluator, environmental distractions, a lack of familiarity with the context in which the assessment takes place, a lack of the ability to point, having to repeatedly answer the same question, low tolerance for frustration, and anxiety in assessment situations [11]
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