Abstract
Reading comprehension difficulties exhibited by children with autism are related to executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) deficits. However, the potential heterogeneity of ToM, EF, and reading comprehension abilities, and their interrelationships, among Chinese children with autism remains unclear. Using comprehensive sets of ToM and EF tasks, the present study assessed basic and advanced ToM, EF, and reading comprehension skills for 36 seven- to nine-year-old Hong Kong Chinese children with autism and 36 typically developing (TD) peers. Despite comparable age, intelligence, and working memory, children with autism performed significantly worse than their TD peers on advanced ToM and EF tasks and overall reading comprehension skills. Moreover, linear mixed-effects modelling analyses revealed that specific impairments in EF and ToM were associated with different components of reading comprehension deficits and language abilities in children with autism. These findings suggest that children with autism have multiple but specific cognitive and reading comprehension difficulties and that EF and ToM uniquely contribute to their deficits in reading comprehension.
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This work was supported by funding from the General Research Fund [17609518, 2018-2021; 17620520, 2020-2023] from the Hong Kong Government Research Council to Dr. Shelley Xiuli Tong. We are grateful to all participants for their participation and cooperation.
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Lee, H.K., Chan, W.S. & Tong, S.X. The heterogeneity and interrelationships among theory of mind, executive function, and reading comprehension deficits in Hong Kong Chinese children with Autism. Read Writ 36, 1539–1565 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10298-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10298-y