ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT IN HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS

Academic achievement levels in 54 high functioning (IQ > 70) autistic subjects were compared with those of 41 normal controls, who did not d iffer significantly in age, IQ, gender, race, or SES from the autistic subjects. The measuresof academic achievement used included portions of the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude-2, the Woodcock Reading Mast ery Test, and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement. Based on pr ior neuropsychological findings, it was hypothesized that autistic sub jects would not differ from controls on subtests assessing mechanical and procedural skills, but would differ on subtests measuring comprehe nsion and interpretive skills. As predicted, the autistic subjects per formed significantly less well than controls on comprehension tasks, b ut not on mechanical reading, spelling, and computational tasks. This pattern is at variance with the typical academic profile of individual s with disabilities in reading or spelling, but shares some features w ith the nonverbal learning disabilities.