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The Vineland-II in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Item Content Category Analysis

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Abstract

We investigated which item subsets of the Vineland-II can discriminate low-functioning preschoolers with ASD from matched peers with other neurodevelopmental disorders, using a regression analysis derived from a normative sample to account for cognitive and linguistic competencies. At variance with the typical profile, a pattern with Communication more impaired than Socialization was observed. The source of the frequently reported Socialization delay in ASD appears to be in Playing and Imitating skills only, not in other social adaptive behavior skills. The combination of item subsets Playing, Following instructions, Beginning to talk, and Speech skills provided the best discrimination between the two clinical groups. Evaluation of the Vineland-II score on item content categories is a useful procedure for a more efficient clinical description.

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Acknowledgments

The investigation was partially supported with funding from the Italian Department of Education, University and Research, Grant PRIN 2005. The authors thank Federica Bianchi, Paolo Guzzon, Roberta Igliozzi, and Maria Rosa Valsecchi for their help with the data collection, and Antonio Narzisi for his helpful comments. Portions of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston, in August 2008.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed equally to the work presented in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Medical, Molecular and Critical Area Pathology, University of Pisa, Via Roma, 67, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Giulia Balboni

  2. Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara, Via Paradiso, 12, 44121, Ferrara, Italy

    Alessandra Tasso

  3. IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, University of Pisa, Via dei Giacinti, 2, 56128, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy

    Filippo Muratori

  4. Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 31, 38068, Rovereto, Italy

    Roberto Cubelli

  5. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Via dei Giacinti, 2, 56128, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy

    Filippo Muratori

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  1. Giulia Balboni
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  4. Roberto Cubelli
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Correspondence to Giulia Balboni.

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Ethical Standards

This study was approved by the local ethics committee and was performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 2013 Declaration of Helsinki and its later versions. Parental informed consent was obtained.

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Balboni, G., Tasso, A., Muratori, F. et al. The Vineland-II in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Item Content Category Analysis. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 42–52 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2533-3

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