Biomedical subjects

Loisa Bennetto

Publications and source records attributed to Loisa Bennetto.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Patterns of nonverbal cognitive functioning in young children with autism spectrum disorders.

Previous research demonstrates an uneven pattern of cognitive abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study examined whether this uneven pattern exists within the nonverbal domain in young children. We hypothesized relative strengths in perceptual abilities and weaknesses in nonverbal conceptual abilities in preschoolers with ASDs compared to groups with non-autism developmental delays and typical development. Profiles were examined using the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised. The ASD group displayed clear relative strengths in visuospatial disembedding and detail-focused processing, with relative weaknesses in abstraction and concept formation. This contrasted with patterns of roughly equivalent abilities in both comparison groups. These findings have implications for subsequent development and may represent key features of the cognitive profile of autism.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed2007

Beyond pragmatics: morphosyntactic development in autism.

Language acquisition research in autism has traditionally focused on high-level pragmatic deficits. Few studies have examined grammatical abilities in autism, with mixed findings. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by providing a detailed investigation of syntactic and higher-level discourse abilities in verbal children with autism, age 5 years. Findings indicate clear language difficulties that go beyond what would be expected based on developmental level; specifically, syntactic delays, impairments in discourse management and increased production of non-meaningful words (jargon). The present study indicates a highly specific pattern of language impairments, and importantly, syntactic delays, in a group of children with autism carefully matched on lexical level and non-verbal mental age with children with developmental delays and typical development.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed2006

Story recall and narrative coherence of high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders.

Previous research has found few quantitative differences between children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and well-matched controls in the length, complexity, and structure of their narratives. Researchers have noted, however, that narratives of children with ASDs have an unusual and idiosyncratic nature. This study provides an analysis of narratives in 17 children with high-functioning ASDs and 17 typically developing children matched on age, gender, language abilities, and cognitive abilities. We examined story recall and narrative coherence. The study revealed no group differences in story length or syntactic complexity. Children with ASDs also did not differ from controls in their use of the gist of a story to aid recall, or in their sensitivity to the importance of story events. Children with ASDs did, however, produce narratives that were significantly less coherent than the narratives of controls. Children with ASDs appeared less likely to use the gist of the story to organize their narratives coherently. These findings are discussed with regard to their relationship to other cognitive and linguistic difficulties of children with ASDs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

The use of two language tests to identify pragmatic language problems in children with autism spectrum disorders.

PURPOSE: Pragmatic language disorders (PLDs) are difficult to diagnose in a cost-effective manner, and there are few assessment tools that yield quantitative data. This investigation was designed to determine whether two formal assessment tools would differentiate PLDs in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) from controls matched on verbal IQ and language fundamentals. METHOD: Thirty-four matched participants were given the Test of Pragmatic Language (TOPL; D. Phelps-Terasaki & T. Phelps-Gunn, 1992) and the Strong Narrative Assessment Procedure (SNAP; C. J. Strong, 1998). RESULTS: Participants with ASDs had significantly poorer scores than controls on the TOPL. On the SNAP, the children with ASDs performed similarly to controls on syntax, cohesion, story grammar, and completeness of episodes. The controls performed significantly better only on the ability to answer inferential questions. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The TOPL was effective in differentiating PLDs in children with ASDs when performance was compared tomatched controls. The SNAP did not clearly differentiatelanguage problems in these two groups. Research is needed to develop formal assessment tools that target the unique language disabilities of high-functioning individuals with ASDs.

Adolescent↗