IALP 2025

Exploratory study on the application of the Language Use Inventory (LUI PB) in brazilian children with autism spectrum disorder

Carolina de Campos Salvato Dr Beatriz Servilha Brocchi Prof, Dr Ellen Osborn Prof, Dr Ana Carina Tamanaha Prof, Dr Jacy Perissinoto
Federal University of São Paulo

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between the Brazilian version of the Language Use Inventory (LUI-PB) and language performance in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). METHOD: 38 children diagnosed with ASD by a multidisciplinary team (ages 22–47 months, mean age 37 months; 73.7% male and 26.3% female) participated. The M-CHAT R/F (Robins, Fein, Barton, 2001) identified critical ASD signs. Parents completed the LUI-PB (Brocchi, Perissinoto, Osborn, 2019), which was analyzed in three parts: (1) gestures, (2) words, (3) sentences, and the total (words + sentences). The ADL - Language Development Assessment (Menezes, 2003) was applied to classify language disorders. Spearman’s correlation was used with pRESULTS: In the language assessment (ADL), 52.6% of children showed severe language disorders, 18.4% moderate, 21.1% mild, and 7.9% had normal development. The M-CHAT identified critical ASD signs (mean score 3.8, SD=1.4). Correlation analysis showed that children with higher M-CHAT scores had lower scores in word (2) and sentence (3) use on the LUI-PB, with no significant correlation with gesture use (1). Regarding language development, children with severe language disorders (ADL) had lower scores in word and sentence use on the LUI-PB. CONCLUSION: The LUI-PB showed an association with both ASD signs and language disorders. The findings suggest that the LUI-PB may serve as a complementary tool for assessing the communicative performance of children with ASD. REFERENCES: Brocchi, B. S., Osborn, E., Perissinoto, J. (2019). Translation of the Parental Inventory "Language Use Inventory" into Brazilian Portuguese.
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