Language Abilities of Russian Primary-School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from Comprehensive Assessment.

The purpose of the present research was to comprehensively assess the language abilities of Russian primary-school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), varying in non-verbal IQ, at all linguistic levels (phonology, lexicon, morphosyntax, and discourse) in production and comprehension. Yet, the influence of such non-language factors as children's age, the severity of autistic traits, and non-verbal IQ on language functioning was studied. Our results indicate a high variability of language skills in children with ASD (from normal to impaired) which is in line with the previous studies. Interestingly, the number of children with normal language abilities was related to the linguistic levels: according to more complex morphosyntax and discourse tests, fewer children with ASD were within the normal range unlike the results in simpler phonological and lexical tests. Importantly, we found that language abilities were best predicted by non-verbal IQ but were independent from age and the severity of autistic traits. The findings support the claim that formal language assessment of children with ASD needs to include all linguistic levels, from phonology to discourse, for helping speech-language therapists to choose an appropriate therapy target.

'Moderate global aphasia': A generalized decline of language processing caused by glioma surgery but not stroke.

Unlike stroke, neurosurgical removal of left-hemisphere gliomas acts upon a reorganized language network and involves brain areas rarely damaged by stroke. We addressed whether this causes the profiles of neurosurgery- and stroke-induced language impairments to be distinct. K-means clustering of language assessment data (neurosurgery cohort: N = 88, stroke cohort: N = 95) identified similar profiles in both cohorts. But critically, a cluster of individuals with specific phonological deficits was only evident in the stroke but not in the neurosurgery cohort. Thus, phonological deficits are less clearly distinguished from other language deficits after glioma surgery compared to stroke. Furthermore, the correlations between language production and comprehension scores at different linguistic levels were more extensive in the neurosurgery than in the stroke cohort. Our findings suggest that neurosurgery-induced language impairments do not correspond to those caused by stroke, but rather manifest as a 'moderate global aphasia' - a generalized decline of language processing abilities.

Expressive and Receptive Language in Russian Primary-School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal language development in both expressive and receptive domains occurs in most children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), although the language deficit is not a core symptom of ASD. However, previous studies disagree on the difference in the degree of impairment between expressive and receptive language in ASD. Existing research has concentrated on vocabulary and 'global expressive and receptive language', often using parental reports for language assessment. Moreover, most of these studies have focused on toddlers and preschoolers with ASD, whereas data from school-aged children with ASD are very limited. At the same time, the age of children might account for the inconsistencies across publications on expressive-receptive language difference in children with ASD. AIMS: The goal of the study was to directly compare the expressive and receptive language abilities of Russian primary-school-aged children with ASD (7-11 years old) at the levels of vocabulary, morphosyntax, and discourse. METHODS: 82 children with ASD participated in language testing. We used tests from the Russian Child Language Assessment Battery in order to assess vocabulary, morphosyntax, and discourse in expressive and receptive domains. RESULTS: Our results revealed different expressive and receptive patterns, depending on the linguistic level and tests complexity. Importantly, we showed that children's non-verbal IQ partly accounted for the difference between production and comprehension abilities. CONCLUSIONS: The expressive-better-than-receptive pattern in language has been considered by some authors as the unique hallmark of ASD. However, several studies, including our own, show that this is not a universal characteristic of ASD. We also revealed that expressive and receptive language patterns differed depending on the linguistic level, children's non-verbal IQ, and assessment tools.