Structural and Pragmatic Language Impairments in Children Evaluated for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Lise Reindal, Terje Nærland, Bernhard Weidle and 3 others
PMID 33515169WHAT IT FOUND
Most children evaluated for autism had language impairments, with pragmatic deficits more common than structural ones.
Structural language skills strongly predicted pragmatic competence. Early language delay was linked to current structural deficits but not to social or pragmatic impairment.
Key findings
0181% of the sample was classified as having language impairment, with pragmatic deficits being more common than structural deficits.
02Structural language skills were strongly associated with pragmatic competence, explaining 35.9% of the variance in pragmatic scores.
03Children with early language delay had worse current structural language scores but did not differ significantly in pragmatic skills or social impairment compared to those without delay.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study relied on parent report via the CCC-2, which may be subject to bias or inaccuracy compared to direct assessment. Early language delay was determined retrospectively from medical records and parent recall, which introduces potential recall bias. The sample was referred for clinical assessment due to concern, so it may not represent all children with autistic symptoms in the general population. The non-ASD group was small (n=29), limiting the power to detect differences between diagnostic groups. The cross-sectional design prevents conclusions about language development trajectories over time.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Norges Forskningsråd, Helse Sør-Øst RHF, Helse Møre og Romsdal HF, and NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. No specific conflicts of interest declarations for individual authors were provided in the text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that early language delay predicts the severity of social or pragmatic impairments. The study found that while early delay was associated with current structural language deficits, it was not associated with differences in pragmatic skills or social impairment scores.