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Divergence of Age-Related Differences in Social-Communication: Improvements for Typically Developing Youth but Declines for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Although social-communication difficulties and repetitive behaviors are hallmark features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and persist across the lifespan, very few studies have compared age-related differences in these behaviors between youth with ASD and same-age typically developing (TD) peers. We examined this issue using SRS-2 (Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition) measures of social-communicative functioning and repetitive behaviors in a stratified cross-sectional sample of 324 youth with ASD in the absence of intellectual disability, and 438 TD youth (aged 4–29 years). An age-by-group interaction emerged indicating that TD youth exhibited age-related improvements in social-communication scores while the ASD group demonstrated age-related declines in these scores. This suggests that adolescents/adults with ASD may fall increasingly behind their same-age peers in social-communicative skills.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program at NIMH, NIH under Grants 1-ZIA-MH002794, 1-ZIA-MH002920. LA, CEP, and LK were supported by The Gudelsky Family Foundation and an IDDRC Grant HD046388-01A2. CEP was supported by a T32 Grant 5P30HD040677-15. We would like to express our gratitude to the individuals and families who volunteered their time to contribute to this research.

Author Contributions

GLW designed the study, conducted the statistical analysis, analyzed the data, wrote the initial draft of the paper, and participated in revising the manuscript and addressing the reviewers’ comments. LA, CEP, NRL, JNG, AM, AR and LK assisted with manuscript development, provided guidance on statistical analysis, and participated in revising the manuscript and addressing the reviewers’ comments. KD, BO and LC collected data, built the database, assisted in statistical analyses, and reviewed the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The George Washington University, 2115 G Street NW, Room 201, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

    Gregory L. Wallace

  2. Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Gregory L. Wallace, Bako Orionzi & Alex Martin

  3. Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Children’s Research Institute, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA

    Katerina Dudley, Laura Anthony, Cara E. Pugliese & Lauren Kenworthy

  4. Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Liv Clasen, Nancy Raitano Lee, Jay N. Giedd & Armin Raznahan

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  1. Gregory L. Wallace
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  2. Katerina Dudley
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  3. Laura Anthony
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  4. Cara E. Pugliese
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  5. Bako Orionzi
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  6. Liv Clasen
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  7. Nancy Raitano Lee
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  8. Jay N. Giedd
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  9. Alex Martin
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  10. Armin Raznahan
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  11. Lauren Kenworthy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gregory L. Wallace.

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All authors declare no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Wallace, G.L., Dudley, K., Anthony, L. et al. Divergence of Age-Related Differences in Social-Communication: Improvements for Typically Developing Youth but Declines for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 472–479 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2972-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2972-5

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