Atypical Semantic Fluency and Recall in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders Associated with Autism Symptoms and Adaptive Functioning.

Researchers compared language skills in 60 children with autism to 60 children without autism. They tested how well children could name animals and fruits, remember typical examples, and recall words. Children with autism had more difficulty naming animals, chose less typical fruit examples, and had trouble remembering fruits. These language challenges were linked to more severe autism symptoms and daily living difficulties.

This study examined semantic language abilities in 60 children with autism (aged 7-15) compared to 60 typically developing controls. Researchers assessed semantic fluency (ability to generate words in categories), typicality (how typical word choices are), and recall for fruits and animals categories. Children with autism showed reduced animal fluency, lower fruit typicality, and poorer recall for fruits compared to controls. These difficulties were associated with more severe autism symptoms and lower adaptive functioning across both groups.

The findings suggest children with autism may develop idiosyncratic semantic networks and experience executive language function impairments affecting their semantic processing abilities.

Results suggest semantic language assessment should include fluency, typicality, and recall measures. Interventions targeting semantic organization and executive language functions may benefit children with autism. The association with adaptive functioning indicates semantic abilities could be important intervention targets for improving daily life skills.

Sample size and study design details not fully specified in abstract. Gender imbalance (48 boys, 12 girls) may limit generalizability. Unclear whether findings apply across different severity levels of autism or age ranges within the sample.

It is unclear whether children with autism spectrum disorders have atypical semantic fluency and lower memory for the semantics of words. Therefore, we examined semantic typicality, fluency and recall for the categories of fruits and animals in 60 children with autism aged 7-15 years (boys: 48/girls: 12) compared to 60 typically developing controls. Relative to controls, the autism group had reduced animal fluency, fruit typicality and recall for fruits. Notably, these measures were associated with more autistic-like symptoms and/or lower adaptive functioning across the autism and control groups.

In conclusion, atypical semantics of fruits in the autism group may reflect development of idiosyncratic semantic networks while their lower semantic fluency and recall suggest impaired executive language functions.