Developmental Skills Moderate the Association Between Core Autism Features and Adaptive Behaviour in Early Childhood

Daniel Berends; Catherine A Bent; Giacomo Vivanti; Cheryl Dissanayake; Kristelle Hudry

doi:10.1007/s10803-023-05932-9

Developmental Skills Moderate the Association Between Core Autism Features and Adaptive Behaviour in Early Childhood

J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 May 4. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-05932-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Daniel Berends¹, Catherine A Bent², Giacomo Vivanti^{3

4}, Cheryl Dissanayake⁴, Kristelle Hudry²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology Counselling and Therapy, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. d.berends@latrobe.edu.au.
² Department of Psychology Counselling and Therapy, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
³ A.J.Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA.
⁴ Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

PMID: 37142900
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-023-05932-9

Abstract

Purpose: While research indicates that both the core features of autism and associated developmental skills influence adaptive behaviour outcomes, results to date suggest greater influence of the latter than the former, and little attention has been given to how the interaction of both together might impact functional disability. Seeking to expand understanding of associations between young children's core social autism features, developmental skills, and functional ability/disability, we specifically tested whether early developmental skills might have a moderating effect on the association between early social features and subsequent functional disability.

Methods: Data from 162 preschool children were available for this study. These included time-1 measures of social autism features (ADOS-Social Affect score) and developmental skills (MSEL-Developmental Quotient; DQ), and a measure of functional ability/disability (VABS-Adaptive Behaviour Composite; ABC) available at follow-up 1-year later (time-2).

Results: Time-1 ADOS-SA and MSEL-DQ scores were concurrently associated with one another, and both prospectively associated with time-2 VABS-ABC scores. Examination of partial correlations (i.e., controlling for MSEL-DQ) demonstrated that the association of time-1 ADOS-SA and time-2 VABS-ABC was accounted for by shared variance with DQ. Formal moderation analysis returned a non-significant overall interaction term, but showed a lower-bound region of significance whereby the association of time-1 ADOS-SA with time-2 VABS-ABC was significant for children with baseline DQ ≤ 48.33.

Conclusion: Our results add to a body of empirical evidence consistent with an understanding of the needs of and resources available to autistic people through a 'cognitive compensation' lens.

Keywords: Adaptive Behaviour; Associated Abilities; Cognitive Skills; Core Autism Features; Developmental Skills; Intellectual Disability.