Problem Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Association with Verbal Ability and Adapting/Coping Skills.
Diane L Williams, Matthew Siegel, Carla A Mazefsky
PMID 28597186WHAT IT FOUND
In 346 psychiatric inpatients with autism, minimally verbal people did not have more problem behaviors than verbal people.
Verbal people had more aggression and oppositional behavior. Lower coping skills were associated with more problem behaviors.
Key findings
01After age and nonverbal IQ were held constant, minimally verbal and verbal participants did not differ significantly on stereotypy or irritability; externalizing behavior was the only significant group difference, with verbal participants showing more.
02Adapting/coping was a significant predictor in every model, with lower coping scores associated with greater problem behaviors, above age, nonverbal IQ, and verbal ability.
03Verbal ability accounted for an additional 21.3% of variance in externalizing problems beyond age and nonverbal IQ, but not in other problem behavior domains.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
All participants were psychiatric inpatients admitted for serious emotional or behavioral challenges, so the findings may not apply to people with ASD whose behavior is less severe. Problem behaviors were measured by parent report, which can be influenced by the parent's own stress or interpretation. The study did not collect enough information about AAC use to examine whether alternative communication affected problem behaviors. The adapting/coping scale was broad, mixing flexibility, manners, and rule-following, so it does not show which specific skill to target. The study reports associations, not experimental effects, so it cannot show that improving coping or communication changes problem behaviors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing spoken language or coping skills will reduce problem behaviors. The study measured associations in hospitalized patients, and verbal participants had more irritability and externalizing behavior in some analyses.