Attention and basic literacy and numeracy in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A one-year follow-up study
Section snippets
Participants
At Time 1, 124 children aged 7–12 years were recruited (May et al., 2013). This included 64 children, 32 male and 32 female, with Autistic Disorder or Asperger's Disorder. The original study investigated gender differences in ASD, hence, females were oversampled compared to the typical gender ratio of four males to every one female found in ASD (Fombonne, 2003). Gender was therefore considered in the analyses. Only children who had a current diagnosis of ASD from their paediatrician or
Preliminary analyses
Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations for the groups across the demographic and outcome variables. One child in the ASD group did not complete the digit span task. An independent t-test showed there was no difference in the time interval between Time 1 and Time 2 testing for the ASD (M = 13.0 months, SD = 1.0 months) and TYP group (M = 12.9 months, SD = 1.0 months), t(78) = −0.544, p = .588. An independent t-test showed the children with ASD had significantly higher parent reported ASD symptoms
Discussion
This study compared basic attentional and academic skills over one year of development in cognitively able children with and without ASD, to determine if early attentional deficits impacted on later word reading and mathematics development. Cognitively able children with ASD exhibited intact word reading and mathematics performances but impairment on an attention switching task. The attentional components correlated significantly with word reading and mathematics performance in ASD children
Conclusion
To summarize, this study has examined the development of attention switching, sustained attention, word reading and mathematics in children with ASD over one year. The children with ASD in this study showed similar developmental profiles in regard to word reading and numerical operations performance relative to typically developing children. Attention switching deficits were detected consistent with past research and these were correlated with both mathematics and word reading performances in
References (54)
- et al.
A review of methods in the study of attention in autism
Developmental Review
(2010) - et al.
Dissociation in performance of children with ADHD and high-functioning autism on a task of sustained attention
Neuropsychologia
(2007) - et al.
Maturation of executive function in autism
Biological Psychiatry
(2007) - et al.
Psychiatric disorders in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(2008) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, IV-TR
(2000)- (2013)
The complete guide to Asperger's syndrome/Tony Attwood
(2006)- et al.
Executive functioning as a predictor of children's mathematics ability: Inhibition, switching, and working memory
Developmental Neuropsychology
(2001) Insights from cognitive neuroscience: The importance of executive function for early reading development and education
Early Education and Development
(2012)- et al.
Mathematical ability of students with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism – A review of literature
Autism
(2007)
Predicting word reading and comprehension with executive function and speed measures across development: A latent variable analysis
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Preschool executive functioning abilities predict early mathematics achievement
Developmental Psychology
The social responsiveness scale
Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Assessing attention and response control with the integrated visual and auditory continuous performance test
Child Neuropsychology
Visual search performance in children rated as good or poor attenders: The differential impact of DAT1 genotype, IQ, and chronological age
Neuropsychology
Reading comprehension interventions for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A synthesis of research
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
The contribution of executive functions to emergent mathematic skills in preschool children
Developmental Neuropsychology
Epidemiological surveys of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders: An update
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Executive function and early reading skills
Reading and Writing
Attentional processes in autism
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Executive functions in young children with autism
Child Development
Asperger syndrome and academic achievement
Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
A comprehensive profile of decoding and comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Autistic children's difficulty with mental disengagement from an object: Its implications for theories of autism
Developmental Psychology
Reading and arithmetic in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Peaks and dips in attainment
Neuropsychology
A longitudinal study of mathematical competencies in children with specific mathematics difficulties versus children with comorbid mathematics and reading difficulties
Child Development
Brief report: Cognitive flexibility and focused attention in children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism as measured on the computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Cited by (21)
Developmental outcomes in adolescence of children with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability: A systematic review of prospective studies
2021, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral ReviewsCitation Excerpt :Thus, the diagnosis in 21 studies included cases of ASD, HFA, PDD-NOS, and/or AS, whereas in two studies, the participants were diagnosed exclusively as PDD-NOS (Louwerse et al., 2015; Verheij et al., 2015). Only one-third of the studies (393%) included a control group with TD, matched on IQ and age with the ASD group (Andersen et al., 2015, 2017; Cantio et al., 2018; Grimm et al., 2018; Kouklari et al., 2019; May et al., 2014, 2015; Pellicano, 2010a; Titeca et al., 2014; Vogan et al., 2018; Welss et al., 2019). The time elapsed until the follow-up evaluation varied greatly, ranging from one year (Kouklari et al., 2019; May et al., 2014, 2015) to 11 years (Kenny et al., 2019).
Profiles of academic achievement and attention in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
2020, Research in Developmental DisabilitiesCitation Excerpt :To measure reading and maths achievement, the WIAT-II was chosen for two reasons. First, this measure has been used with children with ASD (May, Rinehart, Wilding, & Cornish, 2015; May et al., 2013; Mayes & Calhoun, 2007), therefore it was appropriate for use with the current sample. Secondly, it provides composite scores of academic outcomes that are calculated based on two (maths) or three (reading) subtests, allowing for an in-depth examination of abilities both within and between academic domains.
An analysis of reading abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders
2018, Research in Autism Spectrum DisordersCitation Excerpt :This relatively high score in word reading supports previous research (Davidson & Weismer, 2014; Dynia et al., 2014, 2016) demonstrating strengths in alphabetic knowledge (i.e., pre-requisites to word reading). However, word reading for Group 2 was significantly below the average, which contrasts with other literature (Gabig, 2010; May et al., 2015, Nation et al., 2006). This suggests that although the pre-requisite skill for word reading may be emerging, this does not necessarily predict later word reading abilities.
Executive and motor function in children with autism spectrum disorder
2023, Cognitive ProcessingA meta-analysis on the cognitive and linguistic correlates of reading skills among children with ASD
2023, Reading and Writing