B-09Cognitive and Executive Function Profile in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, with and without Specific Learning Disorder

Abstract

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.Objective: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) are each associated with neurocognitive weakness. However, it is unclear if having a comorbid SLD confers any additive negative effect on cognition or executive functioning for youth with ASD. To our knowledge, no study has examined this effect. Youth with ASD and comorbid SLD were hypothesized to have lower cognitive scores and elevated executive function ratings. Method: Participants were 48 youth ages 6–15 (M = 9.7, SD = 2.4, 75% male) with ASD, referred for neuropsychological evaluation. ASD youth with comorbid SLD (ASD+LD; n = 24) were individually matched to ASD only youth (n = 24) for age, sex, race, autism severity, ADHD symptoms, and comorbid psychiatric diagnosis. Differences in WISC index and BRIEF parent report scale scores were compared with paired sample...