DELAY VERSUS DEVIANCE IN AUTISTIC SOCIAL-BEHAVIOR

The pattern of acquisition of social, communication, and daily living skills was examined for autistic children, compared to retarded and no rmal controls, by quantifying intradomain scatter on the Vineland Adap tive Behavior Scales. Autistic children were matched to normal childre n and mentally retarded children on Vineland raw scores; group differe nces in scatter were examined for each domain of adaptive behavior Aut istic children had significantly more scatter on Communication and Soc ialization than both control groups. Item analyses showed that the aut istic children had particular weaknesses on items reflecting attention to and pragmatic use of language, as well as play and reciprocal soci al interaction: the autistic children had particular strengths on item s reflecting written language and rote language skills, and rule-gover ned social behavior. The number of items showing consistent group diff erences, however, was small, suggesting that although autistic develop ment appears sequentially deviant and not merely delayed, individual a utistic children derive their scatter from different items, and are a developmentally heterogenous group.