Cognitive correlates of autism spectrum disorder symptoms.
Camille N Johnson, Bruce Ramphal, Emily Koe and 3 others
PMID 34269525WHAT IT FOUND
Higher verbal IQ predicts fewer communication symptoms on clinician observation, but not on parent reports.
Verbal IQ, not the gap between verbal and nonverbal scores, drives this link. The association was strongest in participants aged 10 and older.
Key findings
01Higher verbal IQ is associated with lower total autism severity scores on the clinician-administered ADOS, while nonverbal IQ and the verbal-nonverbal discrepancy are not significant predictors when verbal IQ is included in the model.
02The association between verbal IQ and autism severity is specific to communication symptoms measured by direct observation, and does not appear in parent-reported measures of social responsiveness or developmental history.
03The relationship between verbal IQ and observed autism symptoms was not present in children under 10 years of age, but was significant in adolescents and adults.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine whether verbal skills influence symptoms or vice versa. The sample is drawn from a dataset biased toward individuals who could complete neuroimaging, which may exclude those with higher support needs or lower cognitive abilities. Data on psychiatric comorbidities was missing for 69% of participants, so their potential influence could not be controlled for. Diagnosis criteria varied between DSM-IV and DSM-5 across sites, which may affect comparability. The association between verbal IQ and ADOS scores may partly reflect that both measures rely on verbal output during the same session.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a patient's high verbal IQ means they have fewer communication difficulties in daily life. The study found that high verbal IQ predicted better performance on the clinician's direct observation (ADOS) but did not predict better parent-reported communication skills (ADI-R/SRS), suggesting a discrepancy between clinical presentation and real-world function.