AGE-DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT IN HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS

A battery of psychoeducational tests was administered to samples of hi gh-functioning (IQ>70) autistic subjects and normal controls. A previo us psychoeducational study indicated the presence of preserved procedu ral and mechanical academic skills accompanied by impaired comprehensi on and interpretive skills in high-functioning autistic individuals. T he present findings indicate that this psychoeducational pattern also has a developmental aspect. Younger (<13 years) autistic subjects perf ormed as well or better than younger controls on psychoeducational mea sures of mechanical and procedural skills, and on some complex, interp retive tasks. However, they performed more poorly than controls on tas ks that involve following complex linguistic instructions. Younger aut istic subjects and controls did not differ significantly from each oth er on interpretive tasks, while the older autistic subjects did signif icantly more poorly than the older controls on such tasks. The finding s are discussed in terms of early success, but subsequent decline, in the course of academic functioning in autism.