Exploring the clinical features of minimally verbal autistic children.

IF 3.2 3区医学 Q2 PSYCHIATRY

Frontiers in Psychiatry Pub Date : 2025-03-20 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1549092

Silvia Guerrera, Elisa Fucà, Emanuela Petrolo, Andrea De Stefano, Laura Casula, Maria Grazia Logrieco, Giovanni Valeri, Stefano Vicari

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction: It is recognized that around 25-30% of autistic children do not develop functional speech and remain minimally verbal beyond the age of 5. However, little is known about the clinical characteristics of this group.

Methods: We retrospectively examined a sample of 189 autistic children and adolescents classified as minimally verbal (mean age: 7.37 ± 1.51; 152 males, 37 females) and compared them with a group of 184 verbal autistic children and adolescents (mean age: 7.71 ± 2.52; 160 males, 24 females). We considered intellectual functioning, severity of autism, emotional and behavioural problems, and parenting stress.

Results: Children in the minimally verbal group exhibited significantly lower nonverbal Intelligent Quotient and an increase in restricted repetitive behaviours compared to the verbal group. Exploring potential differences in emotional and behavioural problems, the verbally group showed higher levels of anxiety symptoms. In addition, minimally verbal group showed high score of parenting stress.

Discussion: This study highlights the importance of accurately characterizing minimally verbal autistic children and adolescents to facilitate the identification of specific and individualized interventions based on individual functioning profiles.

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探讨轻度言语自闭症儿童的临床特征。

引言：人们认识到，大约25-30%的自闭症儿童在5岁以后没有发展出功能性语言，并且仍然保持最低限度的语言能力。然而，对这一群体的临床特征知之甚少。方法：回顾性分析189例自闭症儿童和青少年，平均年龄：7.37±1.51；男性152例，女性37例)，并与184例言语自闭症儿童青少年(平均年龄：7.71±2.52；160名男性，24名女性)。我们考虑了智力功能、自闭症的严重程度、情绪和行为问题以及养育子女的压力。结果：与语言组相比，最低语言组的儿童表现出明显较低的非语言智商和限制性重复行为的增加。在探索情绪和行为问题的潜在差异时，语言组表现出更高程度的焦虑症状。此外，言语能力最低组的育儿压力得分较高。讨论：本研究强调了准确描述最小语言自闭症儿童和青少年的重要性，以促进基于个体功能概况的特定和个性化干预的识别。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Frontiers in Psychiatry Medicine-Psychiatry and Mental Health

CiteScore

6.20

自引率

8.50%

发文量

2813

审稿时长

14 weeks

期刊介绍： Frontiers in Psychiatry publishes rigorously peer-reviewed research across a wide spectrum of translational, basic and clinical research. Field Chief Editor Stefan Borgwardt at the University of Basel is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal''s mission is to use translational approaches to improve therapeutic options for mental illness and consequently to improve patient treatment outcomes.