Miniscalco Carmela, Carlsson Emilia
Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Child Neuropsychiatry, Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Clin Linguist Phon. 2022 May 4;36(4-5):398-416. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2021.1874536. Epub 2021 Feb 8.
Language skills as well as general cognitive skills show a considerable variation in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In previous studies, at least three profiles based on these skills have been suggested; autism with language and non-verbal cognitive skills within the average/normal range (ALN), autism with language disorder (ALD) without concurrent non-verbal cognitive disability, and autism with language disorder and cognitive disability, i.e. autism with a more general delay (AGD). The aim of the present longitudinal case study is to illustrate these three groups more thoroughly by presenting the developmental trajectories of children belonging to each profile. Six children were chosen based on their language and cognitive profiles from the first age 3-year assessment. They came from a larger group of children with ASD identified by autism screening at child health-care centres at age 2.5 years. These six children represent one boy and one girl from each of the three subgroups ALN, ALD and AGD, and were assessed a second time at age 5 and a third time at age 8 years, regarding expressive and receptive language skills, autistic severity and non-verbal cognitive skills. Although preliminary, our results indicate a rather stable developmental trajectory from age 3 to 8 years characterising children with autism based on language and non-verbal cognitive functioning. Thus, in order to help intervention planning and increase predictions of outcome, it seems important to specify both linguistic and cognitive level already at the first assessment in children with ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的语言技能和一般认知技能存在相当大的差异。在以往的研究中，至少提出了基于这些技能的三种概况；语言和非语言认知技能在平均/正常范围内的自闭症（ALN）、伴有语言障碍（ALD）且无并发非语言认知障碍的自闭症，以及伴有语言障碍和认知障碍的自闭症，即伴有更广泛发育迟缓的自闭症（AGD）。本纵向案例研究的目的是通过呈现属于每种概况的儿童的发育轨迹，更全面地说明这三组情况。根据他们在3岁首次评估时的语言和认知概况选择了6名儿童。他们来自2.5岁时在儿童保健中心通过自闭症筛查确定的一大群ASD儿童。这6名儿童分别代表ALN、ALD和AGD三个亚组中的一名男孩和一名女孩，并在5岁时进行了第二次评估，在8岁时进行了第三次评估，评估内容包括表达性和接受性语言技能、自闭症严重程度和非语言认知技能。尽管是初步的，但我们的结果表明，基于语言和非语言认知功能，3至8岁自闭症儿童的发育轨迹相当稳定。因此，为了帮助进行干预规划并提高对结果的预测，在对ASD儿童的首次评估中就明确语言和认知水平似乎很重要。
