20499
Examining the Interaction of Social Function and Language Skills in ASD
Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction between structural language ability and social functioning in ASD.
Methods: A sample of children with ASD (n=141, age: 10.2+3.0, 111 male) was recruited. To tease out the confounding effect of communication on the language-social reciprocity interaction, the Reciprocal Social Interaction subtotal from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)- Module 3 was used to characterize reciprocal social function. Language ability was quantified using the Oral and Written Language Scales, respectively. Receptive and expressive language were considered separately and as a composite as recommended by DSM-5. Using a cut-off of 85 in each language domain (one standard deviation below the mean), children were stratified into high and low language groups. This cut-off value also corresponded to the result of clustering the sample based on language ability using the k-means algorithm.
Results: Reciprocal social interaction score decreased significantly as language comprehension, oral expression, and the oral language composite increased (p<0.0001). In all three cases, there was a significant group x language effect on the social interaction scores (p<0.03). In particular, the reciprocal social interaction score decreased significantly with scores on language domains in the "high language" group but not in the "low language" group.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that structural language ability may define two subgroups within the autism spectrum. The interaction between the social and language domains is different between the two subgroups and may be reflective of distinct underlying biology.
See more of: Diagnostic, Behavioral & Intellectual Assessment