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Examining Phenotypical Heterogeneity in Language Abilities in Chinese-Speaking Children with Autism: A Naturalistic Sampling Approach

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Abstract

Phenotypical heterogeneity in language abilities is a hallmark of autism but remains poorly understood. The present study collected naturalistic language samples from parent–child interactions. We quantified verbal abilities (mean length of utterance, tokens, types) of 50 Chinese-speaking children (M = 5; 6) and stratified subgroups based on their autism traits, IQ, and language abilities. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, four groups were identified. Group 1, the least affected group, had mild autism, the highest IQ, and the strongest verbal abilities. Group 2, the severely affected group, had the lowest IQ, most severe autism symptoms, and weakest verbal abilities. Group 3 and Group 4 displayed average levels of verbal abilities and IQ. These findings may characterize the heterogeneous profiles of verbal abilities in Chinese-speaking children.

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Notes

  1. There was a child aged 3; 7 and his KBIT-2 standard score was 95. The findings were still the same after excluding him.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the help of our research assistants Chi-Chung Chan, Chun-Ho Cheng, Johnny Fung, Fai-Yeung Kwok, Wing-Wun Law, Shing-Hey Lee, Ying-Yi Lee, Oi-Ki Leung, Jonathan Tse, Ching-Yi Wong, Tiffany Wong, and Yan-Yan Yip with data collection and transcription. Special thanks to all of the children and their parents for their help and dedication to education. This research has been fully supported by a grant from the Innovation and Technology Fund for Better Living (“FBL”) (Project no. ITB/FBL/8005/17/P). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (Survey and Behavioral Research Ethics Reference no. SBRE-19-307) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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  1. Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    Xue-Ke Song, Cassandra Lee & Wing-Chee So

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  1. Xue-Ke Song
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  2. Cassandra Lee
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  3. Wing-Chee So
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XKS analyzed the data and wrote the article. CL analyzed the data. WCSO designed the study and wrote the article.

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Correspondence to Wing-Chee So.

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Song, XK., Lee, C. & So, WC. Examining Phenotypical Heterogeneity in Language Abilities in Chinese-Speaking Children with Autism: A Naturalistic Sampling Approach. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 1908–1919 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05104-7

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