Formal Thought Disorder and Executive Functioning in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Old Leads and New Avenues.
Tim Ziermans, Hanna Swaab, Alexander Stockmann and 2 others
PMID 28342165WHAT IT FOUND
Children and adolescents with high-functioning autism showed more disorganized speech on a story task and reported more odd speech than matched controls.
Within the autism group, weaker verbal working memory was linked to more disorganized speech, not response inhibition.
Key findings
01Youth with high-functioning autism had more disorganized speech on objective story-task ratings and more odd speech on self-report than controls.
02More participants with autism than controls scored above clinical cut-offs on total objective thought disorder and on self-reported odd speech.
03Within the autism group, worse verbal working memory was associated with more disorganized speech and was the only executive function predictor in the regression models.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only measured children and adolescents at one time point, so it cannot show that poor verbal working memory causes disorganized speech. Objective speech differences had small effect sizes, and only total ratings and incoherence differed significantly; illogical thinking and loose associations did not. Some participants had missing data, and only five children with autism were taking psychotropic medication, so medication effects are hard to interpret. The sample was limited to high-functioning, verbal participants with IQ of 70 or higher, so it does not speak to non-speaking or intellectually disabled autistic people. The study did not assess other relevant domains such as attention or language, which may explain part of the association.
Declared interests
The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) is named as the funder. The supplied text does not state author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that disorganized speech in autism predicts psychosis or that training verbal working memory will reduce it. The study measured participants at one time point and did not follow them for psychotic outcomes.