MOSCOW, April 2 Psychologists from the Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University (MSPPU) studied the characteristics of speech understanding in primary school children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). They concluded that developmental inconsistency is a more common feature of autism than previously thought, and may largely determine the paradoxical clinical picture of the syndrome. The results of the study were published in the journal Clinical and Special Psychology.
University specialists noted that the main studies of the speech of children with ASD are aimed at its expressive side, that is, their own conversational development. MSUPE scientists focused on studying its impressive part, that is, understanding.
“We used three methods. The first one is the diagnostic examination plan for autism (ADOS) to assess the profile of autistic manifestations and their severity. The second one is SHIP, it allows evaluate speech skills at all levels of the language. The third is intelligence testing,» said Darya Pereverzeva, senior researcher at the scientific laboratory of the Federal Center of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.
The scientists explained that, according to the results of the study, younger students with ASD are characterized by uneven development of speech understanding. Experts noted that the range of disorders is very wide — from complete mutism (i.e. inability to use speech) to advanced development.
Psychologists of the Moscow State Pedagogical University drew attention to the fact that it had previously been proven many times that in autism there is also an uneven intellectual development. Some abilities are significantly below the norm, while others are significantly higher. The study of visual perception showed similar results.
January 16, 09:00
«The results of this work indicate that developmental inconsistency appears to be a more common feature of autism than was previously assumed, and in many respects can determine the paradoxical nature of the clinical picture of the syndrome,» Pereverzeva noted.
The researchers added that the degree of uneven development of impressive speech was associated with the severity of autism and did not depend on the level of intelligence. That is, the more severe the autism, the more pronounced is the heterogeneity of the results across different language levels (phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, and discursive).
The study involved 50 children with ASD aged 7 to 11 years. The scientific work is a stage of a series of projects devoted to the study of speech in ASD, conducted by the HSE Center for Language and Brain and the Center for Neurocognitive Research (MEG-Center) of MSUPE.
The further task of the scientific team is to better understand the patterns of development in autism, as well as to clarify how specialists should build an approach to diagnosing and correcting disorders.< br />