"Communicative skills in Spanish children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Analysis through parents' perceptions and narrative production". (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baixauli Fortea, Inmaculada; Berenguer Forner, Carmen; Colomer, Carla; Casas, Ana Miranda; Miranda, Belén Roselló
• Is Part Of: Research in autism spectrum disorders. Volume 50(2018:Jun.)
• Page Start: 22
• Page End: 31
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: Communication -- Pragmatics -- Narrative -- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder -- Autism Spectrum Disorder; Autism spectrum disorders -- Periodicals; 616.85882005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2018.02.006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-9467

Abstract

Highlights: The present study examined the communicative profile of children with ASD and children with ADHD. Communicative deficits were not as severe in the group with ADHD as in the group with ASD. Stereotyped language, non-verbal communication and the use of context were more affected in children with ASD than in ADHD. The narrative analysis revealed that participants with ASD make more erroneous interpretations than participants with ADHD. Communicative competence analysis has implications for optimizing the assessment process and planning the treatment. Abstract: Background: Communicative skills are one of the main deficits experienced by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The differential diagnosis is a complex issue that clinicians often face. For this reason, this study has two objectives: 1) to analyze the similarities and differences that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and children with ASD present in their linguistic and communicative skills, through parentś perceptions and narrative production; 2) to identify the relative importance of the skills analyzed in discriminating children with ASD versus children with ADHD, as well as the classification power of each of the two measurement methods used. Method: Participants were 37 children with typical development (TD), 52 with ASD, and 35 with ADHD. Their communicative competence was assessed through The Children's Communication Checklist Second Edition (CCC-2) (Bishop, 2003) and a narrative task. Results: The results of the family ratings indicated that the difficulties were not as severe in ADHD as in ASD, where the deficit was much more pronounced in the interpretation of the context, non-verbal communication, and stereotyped language. On the narrative task, both groups displayed difficulties on expressing relevant information and inferential comprehension, and they differed on erroneous interpretations, with the children with ASD presenting worse performance. These variables showed a greater capacity to classify participants in the diagnostic categories studied. Conclusions: These findings have direct clinical implications for optimizing the assessment process, making it possible to identify which specific language aspects can best differentiate between groups.