University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
University of Alberta, 1-47 Corbett Hall, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2G4, Canada.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 May;49(5):1937-1948. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-03873-2.
Possible gender differences in manifestations of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were examined using data on production of narratives. The Expression, Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument (ERRNI; Bishop, Expression, Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument, Harcourt assessment, London, 2004) was administered to a sample of matched 8-year-old intellectually able boys and girls with ASD (13M, 13F), who had been selected from a large, longitudinal study. In addition, transcripts of the narratives were analyzed in detail. Significant gender differences were found in narrative production. Girls included more salient story elements than boys. On detailed language analysis, girls were also shown to tell richer stories, including more descriptors of planning or intention. Overall, our findings suggest that subtle differences in social communication may exist between intellectually able boys and girls with ASD. If reliably identifiable in young children, such gender differences may contribute to differential diagnosis of ASD. In addition, such differences may pave the way for differential approaches to intervention when the target is effective communication in sophisticated discourse contexts.
使用叙事作品产生的数据，研究了自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）表现的可能性别差异。对 13 名男性和 13 名女性年龄匹配的、有 ASD 的 8 岁智力正常的儿童进行了《表达、接收和回忆叙事工具》（ERRNI；Bishop，Expression，Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument，Harcourt assessment，London，2004）测试，这些儿童均来自一个大型纵向研究。此外，还详细分析了这些儿童的叙事转录本。在叙事产生方面发现了显著的性别差异。女孩比男孩包含更多突出的故事元素。在详细的语言分析中，女孩也讲述了更丰富的故事，包括更多关于计划或意图的描述词。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，在有 ASD 的智力正常的男孩和女孩之间可能存在微妙的社会沟通差异。如果在幼儿中能够可靠地识别出这些差异，那么这些性别差异可能有助于 ASD 的鉴别诊断。此外，当目标是在复杂的话语情境中进行有效沟通时，这些差异可能为干预的差异化方法铺平道路。
