Non-Verbal Cognitive Profile of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

The literature shows that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate a heterogeneous pattern of cognitive abilities, including nonverbal abilities. However, there is a need for better cognitive characterization of this population for both research and intervention purposes. The present study aims to verify the Leiter-R performance profile for 40 children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old with ASD. The performance of the ASD children in each subtest and their total scores were compared to those of a control group of typically developing children, and intragroup analysis was conducted to verify the strengths and weaknesses of the children with ASD. The results show that individuals with ASD have difficulties with abstract reasoning related to fluid intelligence as well as selective attention and inhibition. Conversely, their visuo-spatial abilities are their strength. Cluster and comparative intra-group analyses indicate that nonverbal cognitive abilities are heterogeneous among the individuals within the ASD group. Performance in nonverbal tasks is positively correlated with adaptive functioning in communication and daily skills domains and inversely correlated with symptom severity as measured by the Autism Behavior Checklist. These results corroborate the literature associating cognition and functionality in ASD.

L’hétérogénéité du développement cognitif et socio-émotionnel d’enfants atteints de trouble du spectre de l’autisme en lien avec la sévérité des troubles

“…Correspondant tout à fait aux derniers résultats publiés à ce sujet, malgré l'utilisation de tests d'évaluation différents et de groupes d'enfants d'âges variés [2,5,6,29], cette dépendance mesurée entre le degré d'autisme et le niveau de développe-ment représente une caractéristique essentielle du syndrome. Et cette association de la sévérité de l'autisme et de l'intensité du retard constitue l'un des facteurs d'évolution de l'autisme [7].…”

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Assessment of cognitive abilities using the non-verbal SON-R 6-40

“…The cognitive profiles of individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) vary widely, with symptom severity differing among patients with the same diagnosis (Lai et al, 2013;Lord et al, 2014). This variability can also be seen in the same individual, with some abilities preserved and others more impaired, where the same individual serves as the reference parameter (Munson et al, 2008;Mecca et al, 2014). Thus, establishing cognitive profile by assessing different abilities in ASD allows interventions to be tailored that center on the patient´s specific cognitive characteristics, whereby more preserved features can be exploited to train and strengthen impaired functions (Corbett, Carmean, & Fein, 2009).…”

“…In general, findings indicate a significant, positive moderate relationship between intelligence and the abilities of communication, socialization and autonomy in activities of daily living (Kanne et al, 2011;Pugliesi et al, 2015). With regard to the presence and severity of symptoms, there is also evidence of a significant negative relationship between intelligence and the presence of behavioral deficits associated with the disorder, such as socialization, communication and restricted patterns of interest (Macedo et al, 2013;Mandelbaum et al, 2006;Mecca et al, 2014;Szatmari et al, 2003). Macedo et al (2013) found that better performance on the non-verbal intelligence test was inversely correlated with scores on the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC).…”

“…In the case of individuals with ASD, there is long-running discussion on the importance of using batteries incorporating different subtests to establish "strengths" and "weaknesses" with regard to cognitive abilities (Joseph, 2011;Klinger et al, 2009;Mandy, Murin, & Skuse, 2015;Mayes & Calhoun, 2008;Oliveras-Rentas et al, 2012). Concerning the type of instrument used for assessing individuals with ASD, the literature in the area is fairly unanimous on the advantages of non-verbal tests (Dawson et al, 2007;Grondhuis & Mulick, 2013;Macedo et al, 2013;Mecca et al, 2014). The language deficits inherent to the disorder, such as echolalia (Oliveras-Rentas et al, 2012), difficulty attributing mental states in certain verbal tasks, demands that depend on knowledge acquired from formal learning situations (vocabulary, for example) can limit the use of functional communication and fail to provide a reliable estimate of the reasoning and problem-solving capacity of individuals with ASD (Dawson et al, 2007;Grondhuis & Mulick, 2013).…”

Relação entre habilidades cognitivas de processamento visual e inteligência fluida com o desempenho em aritmética

“…Este instrumento avalia duas dimensões amplas: o Processamento Visual (Gv) e a Inteligência Fluida (Gf). Há tradução e adaptação para o Brasil (Mecca, 2010), além de estudos psicométricos com evidências de validade e precisão para pré-escolares (Mecca, Antônio, Rabelo, Valentine, & Macedo, 2014;Mecca, Antônio, Seabra, & Macedo, 2014), crianças de Ensino Fundamental I (Mecca, 2013), indivíduos com autismo (Mecca, Orsati, & Macedo, 2014) e com Síndrome de Down (Mecca, 2013).…”