Re. Mcevoy et al., EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION DEFICITS IN YOUNG AUTISTIC-CHILDREN, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry and allied disciplines, 34(4), 1993, pp. 563-578
Preschool-aged, autistic children were compared with both developmenta
lly delayed children of similar non-verbal mental age and normally dev
eloping children of similar verbal skill on measures of executive func
tion and social communication skills. Autistic children exhibited sign
ificantly more perseverative responses on a test of executive function
when compared to both comparison groups. Autistic children also exhib
ited significantly fewer joint attention and social interaction behavi
ors. Moreover, a significant relationship was found between executive
function skill and the two social communication skills, which was inde
pendent of group membership or verbal ability. Competing hypotheses to
account for the relationship between executive function deficits and
social communication deficits in autism are discussed.