Prediction of neuropsychological functions in the analysis of oral narrative production of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents heterogeneous inabilities in narrative production associated with impairments in neuropsychological functions (NF). OBJECTIVE: To establish NF as predictors of oral narrative in children with ASD. METHODS: 35 children aged between 7 and 10.11 years diagnosed with ASD (mean IQ = 101.2, Expressive Vocabulary – VE = 102.1) – the ASDG – and 35 typical children, matched by age and sex (IQ = 115.9 and VE = 114.0) – the TG – participated. Samples of oral narrative production were collected from two sequences of images without text, with different complexities. Four outcomes were created from points in a schema (Stein & Glenn, 1975): total of propositions narrated in each story, proportion of explicit and implicit propositions. For FN, the predictor variables considered were Memory, Orientation, Attention, Perception, Language, Visual-constructive Skills, Arithmetic Skills, Verbal Fluency and Inhibitory Control (Salles et al, 2016). IQ and VE were considered covariates, together with FN, in two regression analysis models to determine predictors for oral narrative production of both groups. RESULTS: Worse performance of ASDG was revealed in the total of the most complex story and in the proportion of explicit items adding the two narratives. For two groups, in model 1, IQ and inhibitory control were predictors of all outcomes. Better performance in the less complex story and in the implicit propositions was predicted for ASD and Arithmetic predicted worse performance in the less complex story and in explicit propositions. In model 2, inhibitory control persisted as a predictor of all outcomes. For the less complex text, the diagnosis of ASD and language predicted better performance. The arithmetic remained inverse prediction. CONCLUSIONS: Characteristics of ASD were evidenced in the production of oral narrative from a sequence of figures and the predictive role of FN was revealed. REFERENCES: 1- Stein, N.L.; Glenn, C.G. (1975). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children: a test of a schema. 68 p. 2- Salles, J.F, Fonseca, R.P., Parente, M.A.M.P., Cruz-Rodrigues, C., Mello, C.B., Barbosa, T., Miranda, M.C. (2016). NEUPSILIN-INF: Instrumento para avaliação neuropsicológica breve para crianças. 1. ed. São Paulo: Vetor.