Friend matters: sex differences in social language during autism diagnostic interviews.
Meredith Cola, Lisa D Yankowitz, Kimberly Tena and 9 others
PMID 35012645WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic girls used more social and friend-related words than boys during diagnostic interviews, despite matching them on age, IQ, and clinician-rated symptom severity.
This higher social talk did not indicate better social skills, and may lead to missed diagnoses if observers mistake it for competence.
Key findings
01Autistic girls produced significantly more social words and friend-related words than autistic boys during the ADOS-2 interview sections.
02Girls and boys were matched on age, IQ, and clinician-rated autism symptom severity, yet girls still had significantly higher parent-rated social challenges on the SRS-2.
03Increased social word use was associated with lower clinician-rated social affect scores in boys, but not in girls, suggesting social talk is not a reliable marker of social skill in girls.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, particularly for girls (N=25), which limits the reliability of sex-specific analyses. Participants were predominantly White, non-Hispanic, and had IQs above 70, so results may not generalize to diverse or intellectually disabled populations. The study used assigned sex at birth and did not account for gender identity. Word frequency analysis does not capture the contextual appropriateness of language, which is critical for pragmatic skills. Conversation partners were primarily female clinicians, which may have influenced the interaction style.
Declared interests
Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and NIH; no specific financial conflicts of interest reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret increased social word use in autistic girls as evidence of better social competence or a lower need for intervention. The study shows that girls used more social words than boys despite having similar clinician-rated symptom severity and higher parent-reported social challenges.