PURPOSE: to check if there are any significant correlations among the data on the functional communicative profile and social-communicative adaptation obtained in individual interviews with parents and therapists of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). METHODS: subjects were: 48 children with psychiatric diagnosis within the autistic spectrum whose functional communicative profile was obtained in play sessions with a language therapist; 48 parents (46 mothers and 2 fathers) and 15 language therapists that answered individually to questionnaires about the children's social performance. RESULTS: it could be observed that the results referring to the social communicative adaptation obtained with the therapists and parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders showed significant correlations with the functional communicative profile. Data on social communicative performance provided by the therapists showed more significant correlations with the functional communicative profile than those obtained with the parents. The number of correlations was generically smaller when the parents provided data on social communicative performance. CONCLUSION: one of the most important results of this study is the evidence that even though ASD children present important deficits in language development, cognition and social abilities, they can be able to extract linguistic and non-linguistic clues from the communicative environment and use them in their social live along with linguistic and social-cognitive improvements.
Child Language; Socialization; Communication; Autistic Disorder
