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Testing the Predictive Power of Cognitive Atypicalities in Autistic Children: Evidence from a 3‐Year Follow‐Up Study
Author(s) -
Pellicano Elizabeth
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
autism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.656
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1939-3806
pISSN - 1939-3792
DOI - 10.1002/aur.1286
Subject(s) - autism , cognition , predictive power , psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , philosophy , epistemology
This follow‐up study investigated the predictive power of early cognitive atypicalities. Specifically, it examined whether early individual differences in specific cognitive skills, including theory of mind, executive function, and central coherence, could uniquely account for variation in autistic children's behaviors—social communication, repetitive behaviors, and interests and insistence on sameness—at follow‐up. Thirty‐seven cognitively able children with an autism spectrum condition were assessed on tests tapping verbal and nonverbal ability, theory of mind (false‐belief prediction), executive function (planning ability, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control), and central coherence (local processing) at intake and their behavioral functioning (social communication, repetitive behaviors and interests, insistence on sameness) 3 years later. Individual differences in early executive but not theory of mind skills predicted variation in children's social communication. Individual differences in children's early executive function also predicted the degree of repetitive behaviors and interests at follow‐up. There were no predictive relationships between early central coherence and children's insistence on sameness. These findings challenge the notion that distinct cognitive atypicalities map on to specific behavioral features of autism. Instead, early variation in executive function plays a key role in helping to shape autistic children's emerging behaviors, including their social communication and repetitive behaviors and interests. Autism Res 2013, ●●: ●●–●●. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.