Associations Among Vocabulary, Executive Function Skills and Empathy in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The results suggest that targeting vocabulary and executive function skills prior to, or in conjunction with, social skills in educational and therapeutic settings may prove beneficial.

A Review of Language, Executive Function, and Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…For instance, several studies note that working memory and syntax are related 11,32 and lexical abilities appear to be important for shifting and inhibition. 60,61 These relationships support the hypothesis that the ability to use linguistic skills to drive one's behavior is important for tasks of executive functions. Thus, if this hypothesis is correct, the clinical implications are that focusing on the development of vocabulary and syntax may ultimately benefit children with ASD both academically and socially.…”

“…Given the HCSM's claims regarding the importance of verbal ability for executive function performance, 18 it is probable that vocabulary, in particular, is important. Cascia and Barr 60 reported on expressive and receptive vocabulary in relation to executive functions in children and adolescents with ASD, ranging in age from 9 to 18 years (mean age ¼ 14.65 years). They found that receptive and expressive vocabulary standard scores were related to parent and teacher ratings of executive functions.…”

“…Therefore, not only are vocabulary and executive functions related to one another, but they both underlie important social outcomes. 60 Joseph and colleagues 41 studied executive function and lexical skills in 34 school-age children with ASD and 31 children without ASD who were matched on age, verbal IQ, and nonverbal IQ. Children with ASD had poorer expressive and receptive vocabulary raw and standard scores.…”

“…61 Findings regarding the relationship between executive functions and expressive and receptive vocabulary knowledge appear to be mixed. 41,60 Given these findings, and the premise of the HCSM, executive function and language certainly appear to be related; however, it is difficult to determine the directionality of the relationship between these two skills. Regardless, deficits in these domains in children with ASD warrant further research, particularly in how clinical practice can improve these two skills.…”

Relations of English and Heritage Language Proficiency to Response Inhibition and Attention Shifting in Dual Language Learners in Head Start

“…First , we hypothesized that children’s higher EL and HL vocabulary would be associated with higher EF, controlling for the covariates. Although no previous empirical studies have examined and found clear differential associations between receptive and expressive vocabulary with EF (e.g., Cascia & Barr, 2017), Green’s theoretical model is more relevant to bilinguals’ language production than comprehension. Thus, we hypothesized that the language-EF associations would be stronger in expressive vocabulary than receptive vocabulary.…”