Verbal individuals with autism provide an important opportunity for in
vestigating the qualitative nature of speech and language impairments
in autism. In this study, a psychometric analysis of the language perf
ormance of 62 high-functioning autistic (HFA; Full Scale IQ and Verbal
IQ > 70) participants was compared with that of 50 control participan
ts matched for age, IQ, gender, race, education, and family socioecono
mic distribution. Tests were included to compare basic procedural ling
uistic skills with complex, interpretive linguistic skills. The HFA pa
rticipants did as well as controls on basic procedural language tests,
but significantly less well on tests of complex interpretive language
abilities. This profile is consistent with neuropsychological reports
of generalized deficits in complex information-processing abilities w
ith preservation of basic skills in the same functional areas.