Cognition and language in autistic children: Correlation with autism severity

The assessment of young children with autism is a challenging practice. The behavioural aspects that characterize these children represent a major obstacle when particularly assessing the cognitive and language abilities of these children. In this study the mental and language ages were measured in 30 children with autistic disorder in relation to the outcome scores obtained from testing the severity of their autism using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale [CARS]. The correlations between such abilities and CARS ratings are investigated and discussed, highlighting the link between such deficits in autistic children. The therapeutic implications are also discussed