Social analogical reasoning in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing peers.
Adam E Green, Lauren Kenworthy, Natalie M Gallagher and 6 others
PMID 27178998WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism matched typically developing peers on a social analogy task.
When explicitly instructed to find similarities, both groups performed similarly. Accuracy improved with age in both groups, suggesting this reasoning ability develops on a comparable trajectory.
Key findings
01There was no significant difference in accuracy on social analogy tasks between children with ASD and age- and IQ-matched typically developing children.
02Social analogy accuracy increased with age in children with ASD, independent of IQ, following a trajectory similar to that of typically developing children.
03Children with ASD performed above chance on the task when explicitly instructed on how to apply analogical reasoning.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, meaning it compared different children at different ages rather than following the same children over time. This limits conclusions about true developmental trajectories. The task used still photographs rather than videos or real-life interactions, which may not reflect how children process social cues in dynamic, real-world settings. Participants had prior exposure to nonsocial analogies, which may have artificially boosted their ability to perform the social task compared to a naive condition. Ceiling effects were present in some older or higher-IQ participants, though analyses removing these participants yielded the same results.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other U.S. government and non-U.S. government sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these results as evidence that children with ASD spontaneously use analogical reasoning in daily life. The task required explicit instruction on how to apply analogical reasoning, and the authors note that children with ASD likely do not use this strategy spontaneously without such guidance.