Divergence of Age-Related Differences in Social-Communication: Improvements for Typically Developing Youth but Declines for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Gregory L Wallace, Katerina Dudley, Laura Anthony and 8 others
PMID 27878739WHAT IT FOUND
Older typically developing youth were rated as having fewer social communication difficulties.
Older youth with autism without intellectual disability were rated as having more difficulties in the main analysis, but not when groups were similar in IQ and sex.
Key findings
01In the main analysis, typically developing older age groups were rated as having fewer social communication and interaction traits than younger age groups.
02In the main analysis, the three oldest autism age groups were rated as having more social communication and interaction traits than the youngest autism age group, but in matched subgroups autism age groups did not differ.
03Restricted and repetitive behavior scores showed no age or sex differences.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study compared different people at different ages, so it cannot show how the same person changes over time. The age pattern in autism disappeared in subgroups matched for sex ratio and IQ, so the main finding may not be stable. The analysis lost power when matching groups, which could affect the age results. Older typically developing children may have been rated differently because parents became more confident or expectations changed, not because skills changed. The SRS-2 is not age-normed, making age differences hard to interpret. The autism sample excluded intellectual disability, so it does not speak to people with autism and intellectual disability. The original groups differed in age, IQ and sex ratio before matching.
Declared interests
All authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reported social communication difficulties worsen with age in autism. The study is cross-sectional, and in matched subgroups older autism age groups did not differ from younger autism age groups.