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Executive functions and pragmatics in children with high-functioning autism

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Abstract

Children with deficits in executive functions (EFs) and impairments in pragmatic language have a range of cognitive and language difficulties that affect their literacy and educational achievements. As deficits in EFs and pragmatic impairments are characteristics of autism spectrum disorders, this study examined the associations between EFs and pragmatic skills in children with high-functioning autism (HFA). Fifteen children with HFA (5–9 years; M = 7.44, SD 1.21), matched to 15 typically developing peers on age, gender, and non-verbal intelligence participated in the study. Children completed a pragmatic language assessment protocol, and a rating scale of EFs was administered to parents. Our results point to two main findings: children with HFA presented pragmatic difficulties and EFs impairments when compared with typically developing peers; and, as shown by a significant indirect effect of group on pragmatics via EFs, the poor pragmatics skills of HFA children were associated with their EFs difficulties. These findings may be of clinical relevance for children with pragmatic impairments, such as autism spectrum disorders. Future studies are crucial to further investigate the relationship between impaired pragmatics and EFs.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/64166/2009, BPD/100696/2014, PEst-OE/LIN/UI0214/2013).

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  1. Sónia Frota and Selene G. Vicente are joint last authors.

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  1. Centre for Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135, Porto, Portugal

    Marisa G. Filipe, Andreia Veloso & Selene G. Vicente

  2. Center of Linguistics, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sónia Frota

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  1. Marisa G. Filipe
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Filipe, M.G., Veloso, A., Frota, S. et al. Executive functions and pragmatics in children with high-functioning autism. Read Writ 33, 859–875 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09975-2

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