A Subtle Profile With a Significant Impact: Language and Communication Difficulties for Autistic Females Without Intellectual Disability

Sturrock, Alexandra; Adams, Catherine; Freed, Jenny

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621742

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 73 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…These authors did not find any statistical differences in grammar skills (and basic vocabulary) between Ms and Fs. Moreover, in a recent paper, Sturrock et al [37] provide a synthesis of recent studies investigating language and communication difficulties in autistic Fs without intellectual disability. The authors found that autistic Fs appeared to perform below typically developing Fs on measures of pragmatics, semantics, and above sentence-level structural language; however, vocabulary and basic grammar (receptive and expressive) appeared to be unaffected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The abovementioned studies focused more on social and pragmatic domains rather than on basic structural language and identified pragmatic and associated higher-level structural language skills as areas of difference between the M and F phenotypes of ASD [29,30,33]. Indeed, S/G differences appear to exist mainly in domains where the meaning of structural language is mediated by social context, inference, language of emotion and internal state, and pragmatic behaviors in discourse and narratives [37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sex/Gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective Study

Barsotti

Mangani

Nencioli

et al. 2023

JCM

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Sex/gender (S/G) differences in ASD language profiles have been poorly investigated. The present study aims to explore whether male (M) and female (F) children with ASD and with normal non-verbal cognitive abilities differ in their linguistic profiles. A sample of 76 Italian children with ASD (range: 4.9–8 years), including 50 Ms and 26 Fs, was retrospectively recruited. Language profiles were analyzed using standardized tests for the evaluation of receptive and expressive vocabulary as well as grammar. Grammatical comprehension was the most impaired domain compared to the other language measures in both M and F children. Comparing language profiles between S/G, Fs showed significantly better scores than Ms in grammatical production (p = 0.002), and Ms showed better active negative sentence comprehension (p = 0.035). Moreover, comparing the language profiles between Ms and Fs with a receptive disorder, Fs had significantly worse grammatical comprehension and better grammatical production than Ms. Even among children without a receptive disorder, Fs had significantly higher grammatical production scores. The S/G differences in language profile, particularly better expressive language in Fs than Ms, can partially contribute to the delayed ASD diagnosis or underdiagnosis of Fs without intellectual disability. Finally, the results document the importance of accurately investigating both expressive and receptive abilities in children with ASD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex/Gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective Study

Barsotti

Mangani

Nencioli

et al. 2023

JCM

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“…This forms an important direction for future research. Further, given that autistic females have a different profile of strengths than autistic males (e.g., Sturrock et al, 2021), another limitation concerns the differences in gender distribution between the sub-study and the main study samples. This study was also limited by a relatively small sample size and small effect sizes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autistic adults and adults with sub-clinical autistic traits differ from non-autistic adults in social-pragmatic inferencing and narrative discourse

Dindar

Loukusa

Leinonen

et al. 2022

Autism

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Since prior research has mostly focused on children, less is known about how autistic adults and adults with sub-clinical autistic traits interpret pragmatically complex social situations and the kind of narrative discourse they produce. 32 autistic young adults, 18 young adults with sub-clinical autistic traits and 34 non-autistic young adults participated this study. They were shown videos of social interactions which required complex pragmatic processing and were asked to freely narrate what they thought was occurring in each video. Their narratives were coded for aspects of social-pragmatic and narrative discourse. The results indicate that the autistic and sub-clinical groups differed from the comparison group in what they inferred as relevant video content. The narratives of the autistic group also differed from the comparison group in meaning, focus and emphasis on details. In addition, the comparison group produced more holistic narratives whereas the autistic and sub-clinical groups produced more atomistic narratives. Correlational findings indicated that perceptual reasoning has stronger associations with pragmatic inferencing in the autistic and sub-clinical groups than in the comparison group. This study suggests that autistic adults and adults with sub-clinical autistic traits differ from non-autistic adults in what they perceive to be relevant in their social world. Lay Abstract Previous social-pragmatic and narrative research involving autistic individuals has mostly focused on children. Little is known about how autistic adults and adults who have autistic traits but do not have a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) interpret complex social situations and tell narratives about these situations. We asked 32 autistic young adults, 18 adults with autistic traits but no ASD diagnosis, and 34 non-autistic young adults to watch socially complex situations and freely tell narratives about what they thought was occurring in each situation. These narratives were analysed for how the participants had interpreted the situations and for the type of narratives they produced. We found that the groups had both similarities and differences. Regarding the differences, we found that the autistic adults and adults with autistic traits interpreted the situations differently from the non-autistic adults. The autistic adults found different aspects of the situations relevant, had different foci and placed greater importance on details than the non-autistic adults. The autistic adults and adults with autistic traits also differed from the non-autistic adults by having more detail- and event-focused narratives whereas the non-autistic adults were more likely to base their narratives on their own broad interpretations of the situations. Perceptual processing styles appeared to play a bigger role in interpreting the situations for the autistic adults and adults with autistic traits than the non-autistic adults. Our findings suggest that autistic adults and adults with autistic traits focus on different aspects in their social world than non-autistic adults.

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“…Further, precocious puberty has been associated with ASD in girls [27]. Additionally, it is more di cult to diagnose social impairments in girls due to the increased ability to camou age (i.e., perform socially 'appropriate' behaviors) [28,29] and enhanced verbal function compared to boys with ASD [30]. This camou aging (e.g., masking) ability can persist into adulthood [31], increasing the likelihood of women living with ASD to not receive appropriate diagnosis and supportive care.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex and age differences in social and cognitive function in offspring exposed to late gestational hypoxia

Mabry

Wilson

Bradshaw

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background: Gestational sleep apnea affects 8-26% of pregnancies and can increase the risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with social dysfunction, repetitive behaviors, anxiety, and cognitive impairment. To examine the relationship between gestational sleep apnea and ASD-associated behaviors, we used a chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) protocol between gestational days (GD) 15-19 in pregnant rats to model late gestational sleep apnea. We hypothesized that late gestational CIH would produce sex- and age-specific social, mood, and cognitive impairments in offspring. Methods: Timed pregnant Long-Evans rats were exposed to CIH or room air normoxia from GD 15-19. Behavioral testing of offspring occurred during either puberty or young adulthood. To examine ASD-associated phenotypes, we quantified ASD-associated behaviors (social function, repetitive behaviors, anxiety-like behaviors, and spatial memory and learning), hippocampal activity (glutamatergic NMDA receptors, dopamine transporter, monoamine oxidase-A, EGR-1, and doublecortin), and circulating hormones in offspring. Results: Late gestational CIH induced sex- and age-specific differences in social, repetitive and memory functions in offspring. These effects were mostly transient and present during puberty. In female pubertal offspring, CIH impaired social function, increased repetitive behaviors, and increased circulating corticosterone levels, but did not impact memory. In contrast, CIH transiently induced spatial memory dysfunction in pubertal male offspring but did not impact social or repetitive functions. Long-term effects of gestational CIH were only observed in female offspring, wherein CIH induced social disengagement and suppression of circulating corticosterone levels in young adulthood. No effects of gestational CIH were observed on anxiety-like behaviors, hippocampal activity, circulating testosterone levels, or circulating estradiol levels, regardless of sex or age of offspring. Conclusions: Our results indicate that hypoxia-associated pregnancy complications during late gestation can increase the risk for ASD-associated behavioral and physiological outcomes, such as pubertal social dysfunction, corticosterone dysregulation, and memory impairments.

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A Subtle Profile With a Significant Impact: Language and Communication Difficulties for Autistic Females Without Intellectual Disability

Cited by 13 publications

References 73 publications

Sex/Gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective Study

Sex/Gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective Study

Autistic adults and adults with sub-clinical autistic traits differ from non-autistic adults in social-pragmatic inferencing and narrative discourse

Sex and age differences in social and cognitive function in offspring exposed to late gestational hypoxia

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