Authors
Minshew NJ, Goldstein G, Taylor HG, Siegel DJ.
Institution
University of Pittsburgh, PA.
Title
Academic achievement in high functioning autistic individuals.
Source
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 1994 Apr;16(2):261-70
Abstract
Academic achievement levels in 54 high functioning (IQ > 70) autistic
subjects were compared with those of 41 normal controls, who did not differ
significantly in age, IQ, gender, race, or SES from the autistic subjects.
The measures of academic achievement used included portions of the Detroit
Tests of Learning Aptitude-2, the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, and the
Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement. Based on prior neuropsychological
findings, it was hypothesized that autistic subjects would not differ from
controls on subtests assessing mechanical and procedural skills, but would
differ on subtests measuring comprehension and interpretive skills. As predicted,
the autistic subjects performed significantly less well than controls on
comprehension tasks, but not on mechanical reading, spelling, and computational
tasks. This pattern is at variance with the typical academic profile of
individuals with disabilities in reading or spelling, but shares some features
with the nonverbal learning disabilities.