EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION DEFICITS IN YOUNG AUTISTIC-CHILDREN

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.