Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder: Another name for the Broad Autism Phenotype?
Judy Flax, Christine Gwin, Sherri Wilson and 3 others
PMID 30931583WHAT IT FOUND
Social communication problems and repetitive behaviours moved together across autism, language impairment, and unaffected family groups.
Only one unaffected sibling had impaired social communication and no impaired repetitive behaviours. The social communication diagnosis was hard to separate.
Key findings
01Scores for social communication impairment and restricted and repetitive behaviours were positively and significantly correlated in ASD subjects and in family members with structural language impairment.
02Only one child in the sample had impaired social communication and no impaired restricted and repetitive behaviour.
03Nine siblings had impaired social communication and impaired restricted and repetitive behaviour but did not meet traditional ASD criteria.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
There was no population control group, so the rates may not apply to children seen in ordinary clinics. The families were selected for autism and language impairment, which may raise social and repetitive behaviour scores compared with a general sample. The study used an existing battery, not a child-centred assessment designed for SPCD, so it may not capture the disorder directly. The number of participants for each measure varied because of age cut-offs. Some measures were limited by age, and adult language impairment was confirmed partly by developmental history. The sample had a large male-female ratio and may have missed sex differences. Correlations show that scores moved together, not that one behaviour caused another.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types list research support from N.I.H., Extramural and non-U.S. government sources. The article text does not provide an author conflict declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude from this paper that SPCD is invalid or that clinicians should stop assessing it. It found that social communication and repetitive behaviour scores were correlated in family groups, and only one unaffected sibling had impaired social communication and no impaired repetitive behaviour.