Do children with and without autism spectrum disorder use different visuospatial processing skills to perform the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test?
Ramona Cardillo, Rachele Lievore, Irene C Mammarella
PMID 35384343WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism but no intellectual disability drew the Rey figure less accurately than typical peers when copying and from memory.
Their drawings were more fragmented, and spatial working memory scores were linked to performance differently for each group.
Key findings
01Children with autism spectrum disorder were less accurate than typically developing children when copying and recalling the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure.
02Children with autism spectrum disorder showed a more fragmented drawing style, while the order in which they began drawing did not differ from typical peers.
03The groups' overall spatial working memory scores did not differ, but spatial working memory related to Rey figure performance differently in each group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only children with autism spectrum disorder who had a full-scale IQ of 80 or above were included, so the results do not show what happens in children with intellectual disability. Children taking medication, or with genetic conditions, neurological diseases or physical disabilities, were excluded. All participants were native Italian speakers and had no visual or hearing impairments. There were few female participants, so gender-specific patterns could not be analysed. The study measured children at one time point, so it cannot show how these abilities change over development.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the lower Rey figure scores as proof of a general thinking or visual deficit. The children with autism had similar scores to typical peers on visual perception, mental rotation and working memory tasks, and similar order of drawing.