Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
King's College London, London, UK.
Mol Autism. 2021 Aug 14;12(1):57. doi: 10.1186/s13229-021-00461-7.
Restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) is one of the characteristic features of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This domain of symptoms includes a broad range of behaviors. There is a need to study each behavior individually to better understand the role of each in the development of autistic children. Moreover, there are currently no longitudinal studies investigating change in these behaviors over development.
The goal of the present study was to explore the association between age and non-verbal IQ (NVIQ) on 15 RRB symptoms included in the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) over time. A total of 205 children with ASD were assessed using the ADI-R at time of diagnosis, at age 6 years, and at age 11 years, and with the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) at age 8 years.
The proportion of children showing each RRB tended to diminish with increasing age, except for sensitivity to noise and circumscribed interests, where the proportion increased over time. Although there was no significant main effect of NVIQ, there was a significant interaction between age and NVIQ. This was mainly driven by Difficulties with change in routine, for which higher NVIQ was associated with the behavior remaining relatively stable with age, while lower NVIQ was associated with the behavior becoming more prevalent with age.
The study focused on the presence/absence of each RRB but did not account for potential changes in frequency or severity of the behaviors over development. Furthermore, some limitations are inherent to the measures used. The ADI-R relies on parent report and hence has some level of subjectivity, while the Wechsler intelligence scales can underestimate the intellectual abilities of some autistic children.
These results confirm that specific RRB are differentially linked to age and NVIQ. Studying RRB individually is a promising approach to better understanding how RRB change over the development of autistic children and are linked to other developmental domains.
限制和重复行为（RRB）是自闭症谱系障碍的特征之一。该症状领域包括广泛的行为。需要单独研究每种行为，以更好地了解每个行为在自闭症儿童发展中的作用。此外，目前尚无研究RRB 在发育过程中随时间变化的纵向研究。
本研究的目的是探索自闭症诊断访谈修订版（ADI-R）中包含的 15 种 RRB 症状与年龄和非言语智商（NVIQ）之间的关联。共有 205 名自闭症儿童在诊断时、6 岁时、11 岁时使用 ADI-R 进行评估，并在 8 岁时使用韦氏儿童智力量表第四版（WISC-IV）进行评估。
除了对噪音和狭隘兴趣的敏感性外，表现出每种 RRB 的儿童比例随着年龄的增长而趋于减少，在这些情况下，比例随时间增加。尽管 NVIQ 没有显著的主效应，但年龄和 NVIQ 之间存在显著的交互作用。这主要是由于常规变化困难，较高的 NVIQ 与行为随年龄相对稳定相关，而较低的 NVIQ 与行为随年龄变得更加普遍相关。
该研究侧重于每种 RRB 的存在/不存在，但没有考虑到行为在发育过程中频率或严重程度的潜在变化。此外，所使用的措施存在一些局限性。ADI-R 依赖于家长报告，因此具有一定程度的主观性，而韦氏智力量表可能会低估一些自闭症儿童的智力能力。
这些结果证实，特定的 RRB 与年龄和 NVIQ 有不同的关联。单独研究 RRB 是一种很有前途的方法，可以更好地了解 RRB 如何随自闭症儿童的发展而变化，以及与其他发展领域的关系。
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