Preliminary study on the analysis of cognitive profile in subjects with ASD: WISC-IV

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, observed in several contexts and characterized by persistent deficits in the communication, social interaction and behavioral areas (DSM V, 2013). ASD includes a wide range, “a spectrum,” of symptoms, skills, and levels of disability. In the last years, we have noticed a substantial change in the diagnostic criteria due to the fact that, although the huge heterogeneity shown by the disorder, in the majority of autistic subjects, both those with high and low IQ, we can identify a common profile of functioning, as regards communicative, social, motor and behavioral skills (Sharma et al., 2012). As reported by Frith (1989; 2003), this kind of functioning is based on a different cognitive style, characterized by a strong prevalence of “bottom-up” elaboration processes, coexistent with the inability of the subject to integrate perceptual data into a global and coherent representation (weak central coherence theory). In this study, we have administered WISC IV to two adolescents (16 years old), already diagnosed for ASD with a low functioning. As expected, results have evidenced the presence of a rigid cognitive style with impaired conceptualization abilities and high attention to details. Specifically main falls have occurred in the area of visual-perceptual reasoning, underlining a lack of visual-spatial processing skills, as well as a lack of fluid reasoning skills. Particularly deficit resulted in the categorization capabilities and abstraction.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.