Predictors of adaptive functioning in preschool aged children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Difficulties in adaptive functioning are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and contribute to negative outcomes across the lifespan. Research indicates that cognitive ability is related to degree of adaptive functioning impairments, particularly in young children with ASD. However, the extent to which other factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES) and ASD symptom severity, predict impairments in adaptive functioning remains unclear. The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which SES, ASD symptom severity, and cognitive ability contribute to variability in domain-specific and global components of adaptive functioning in preschool-aged children with ASD. Participants were 99 preschool-aged children (2-6 years) with ASD who attended a tertiary diagnostic service. Results demonstrate that cognitive ability accounted for a significant proportion of variance in domain-specific and global components of adaptive functioning, with higher cognitive ability predicting better adaptive functioning. Results also demonstrate that SES accounted for some variability in domainspecific communication skills and global adaptive functioning when compared to basic demographic factors alone (age and gender). By contrast, ASD symptom severity did not predict variability in domain-specific or global components of adaptive functioning. These findings provide support for a relationship between cognitive ability and adaptive functioning in preschool-aged children with ASD and help to explain specific contributions of verbal and nonverbal ability to adaptive functioning; from this, we can better understand which children are likely to show the greatest degree of impairments across components of adaptive functioning early in development.Lay Summary: People with autism often have difficulties with everyday communication, daily living, and social skills, which are also called adaptive functioning skills. This study investigated factors that might be related to these difficulties in preschoolers with autism. We found that better cognitive ability, but not autism symptoms, were associated with better adaptive functioning. This suggests that interventions for young children with autism should take into account cognitive ability to better understand which children are likely to have difficulties with adaptive functioning.

Multi-domain computerized cognitive training for children with intellectual developmental disorder: A randomized controlled trial

“…This improvement in adaptive behavior may manifest in communication and socialization. Verbal intelligence is essential for children to communicate and socialize ( Soorya et al, 2015 ; Hodge et al, 2021 ; Lyons, 2021 ). Multi-domain CCT promotes the recovery of language intelligence due to the rich audio-visual interaction ( Takacs et al, 2015 ; Jaschke et al, 2018 ) and daily life scenes ( Helo et al, 2021 ) in the training module.…”

Cognitive-adaptive functioning gap and mediating factors impact on adaptive functioning in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder: a retrospective study

“…Based on the results of previous studies in the relationship between SES and adaptive behaviors, our study included family income and parental culture as important factors, instead of simply using the total score of SES. As discussed in a literature, the total percentiles of SES have disadvantages as a measure of SES in individual with ASD [15] . Unfortunately, social support factors, such as family educational method and the degree of support have not been studied.…”

“…While a large sample research (N = 2538) have discovered that ASD severity was weakly associated with adaptive behaviors in school-aged children with ASD [14] . Recently, a study has demonstrated that ASD symptom severity have failed to predict variability in domain-speci c domain or global components of adaptive behaviors based VABS [15] . The present study will further explore the correlation between ASD symptoms and adaptive functioning in pre-school age children with ASD.…”

New insights in pediatrics in 2021: choices in allergy and immunology, critical care, endocrinology, gastroenterology, genetics, haematology, infectious diseases, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, palliative care, respiratory tract illnesses and telemedicine

“…Better verbal ability predicted better communication, socialization and daily living skills, global adaptive functioning, while better nonverbal ability predicted better motor skills. Autism spectrum disorder symptom severity has not proven to be a predictor of outcome [ 144 ]. Klinger et al [ 145 ] found that treatment characteristics, including intensity and duration, are the most universally agreed upon predictors of treatment outcome, whereas an additional predictor of outcome which demonstrates congruent findings across studies is parental involvement.…”