RESUMO
In non-autistic children, academic skills are associated with academic enablers (motivation, engagement, study/interpersonal skills), but few studies have explored these in autistic children. This study identified profiles of academic skills and enablers in autistic students and explored the trajectory of each profile over time. Teachers completed the Academic Competences Evaluation Scales for autistic children in primary and secondary educational settings annually for 5 years. Latent profile analysis identified six profiles in the primary/younger cohort and seven in the secondary/older cohort. Whilst some profiles showed relative stability across skills and enablers, others profiles were more variable. The profiles remained stable and significantly different from each other over time, with no profile × time interactions identified. Autistic children may show variability across their academic skills and enablers. This highlights the importance of understanding each individual student and their profile of strengths and challenges when planning supports.
RESUMO
We assessed the spoken language of 73 preschool aged children on the autism spectrum receiving community-based early intervention at two time points, approximately 7 months apart. Using the Spoken Language Benchmarks, there was a small non-significant change in the proportion of children transitioning from below, to at or above, Phase 3 (word combinations). Using binomial regression, a model comprising seven of nine clinician-proposed child-related predictors explained 64% of the variance. None of the predictors were individually significant, although a large effect size (OR = 16.71) was observed for children's baseline rate of communicative acts. The findings point to substantial unmet clinical need in children with minimal verbal language, but also the relevance of clinician-proposed predictors of their spoken language outcomes.
