WISC-IV and WIAT-II profiles in children with high-functioning autism.
Children with high-functioning autism earned above normal scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) Perceptual Reasoning and Verbal Comprehension Indexes and below normal scores on the Working Memory and Processing Speed Indexes and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Second Edition (WIAT-II) Written Expression. Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) and reading and math scores were similar to the norm. Profiles were consistent with previous WISC-III research, except that the new WISC-IV motor-free visual reasoning subtests (Matrix Reasoning and Picture Concepts) were the highest of the nonverbal subtests. The WISC-IV may be an improvement over the WISC-III for children with high-functioning autism because it captures their visual reasoning strength, while identifying their attention, graphomotor, and processing speed weaknesses. FSIQ was the best single predictor of academic achievement.
Mayes
Susan Dickerson
SD
Department of Psychiatry H073, The Penn State University College of Medicine, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. smayes@psu.edu
Calhoun
Susan L
SL
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014888:Wechsler Scales