Visual Exploration and Construction Strategies Underlying Performance in the Block Design Task in Autism.

The sample was small, 41 people, and the researchers calculated in advance that it could only reliably detect large differences between groups. Smaller but real differences may have gone undetected, including any difference in overall block design performance. Only the hardest items, the nine-cube designs, were analysed, so nothing here applies to easier items. Each item was given a single strategy label, so anyone who changed approach part-way through a design would not have that captured. Only adults aged 18 to 40 took part, so this says nothing about children or older adults. The findings are group averages. The authors note the wide variability within autism, so the pattern may not describe any one client.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The text supplied does not state who funded or ran the study.

Do not read this as evidence that autistic adults have a visuospatial advantage. Their block design scores did not differ from the non-autistic group's, and the one analysis that found a group difference appeared only after adjusting for hand dexterity and applied to raw scores; the age-corrected standard score used in clinical practice showed no difference. Using more systematic strategies is not the same as performing better, and this study did not show better performance.