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Executive Function and Social Communication Deficits in Young Autistic Children
Author(s) -
McEvoy Robin E.,
Rogers Sally J.,
Pennington Bruce F.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1993.tb01036.x
Subject(s) - psychology , autism , developmental psychology , developmental disorder , function (biology) , evolutionary biology , biology
Preschool‐aged, autistic children were compared with both developmentally delayed children of similar non‐verbal mental age and normally developing children of similar verbal skill on measures of executive function and social communication skills. Autistic children exhibited significantly more perseverative responses on a test of executive Function when compared to both comparison groups. Autistic children also exhibited significantly fewer joint attention and social interaction behaviors Moreover, a significant relationship was found between executive function skill and the two social communciation skills, which was independent of group membership or verbal ability. Competing hypotheses to account for the relationship between executive function deficits and social communication deficits in, autism are discussed.