Enhanced interest in letters and numbers in autistic children.
Alexia Ostrolenk, David Gagnon, Mélanie Boisvert and 4 others
PMID 38867240WHAT IT FOUND
Over a third of autistic preschoolers develop an intense interest in letters and numbers, often despite minimal speech.
This interest emerges at the same age as in typical children but is non-social. Clinicians should ask parents explicitly about it.
Key findings
01Thirty-seven percent of autistic children had an intense or exclusive interest in letters according to parents, compared to 25% of typically developing children.
02The median age of emergence for interest in letters and numbers was 30 months in autistic children, which was not different from typically developing children.
03Autistic children's interest in written material is predominantly non-social, with fewer engaging in shared reading or pretending to read compared to clinical and typically developing groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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
The study population was drawn from a single geographic area in Quebec, excluding families who seek private assessments. Caregivers in Study 2 had to recall ages of onset, which can be inaccurate. The clinical group was older on average than the autistic and typically developing groups, though analyses adjusted for age. Assessment reports in Study 1 were not designed to capture literacy interests, likely leading to underreporting compared to the direct parental interviews in Study 2.
Declared interests
Funded by Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé, Transforming Autism Care Consortium, and Marcel and Rolande Gosselin Research Chair. No specific financial conflicts of interest with commercial entities were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high prevalence of letter interest as evidence that teaching letters will improve oral language. The study shows an association and a non-social nature of this interest, but does not test interventions using this interest to boost communication.