Open AccessCorrelates of Adaptive Functioning in Minimally Verbal Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Author(s) -
Kyle M. Frost,
Natalie Hong,
Catherine Lord
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.735
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1944-7588
pISSN - 1944-7558
DOI - 10.1352/1944-7558-122.1.1
Subject(s) - autism spectrum disorder , autism diagnostic observation schedule , vineland adaptive behavior scale , adaptive behavior , psychology , affect (linguistics) , autism , social skills , adaptive functioning , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , communication , psychotherapist
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to have significant delays in adaptive functioning. In this study, the relationship between adaptive behavior and ASD symptomatology was investigated in minimally verbal, school-aged children with ASD (n = 333). Both the social affect (SA) and restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) domains from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) were analyzed in relation to adaptive skills. ADOS SA scores contributed unique variance to scores in each Vineland domain, though cognitive ability and age accounted for considerably more variance across domains. Results indicate that there is a significant, but small, association between social affect deficits and adaptive skills, challenging clinicians, educators, and caregivers to target adaptive skills in addition to more specific features of ASD.