Investigating Phenotypic Profiles of Children and Adolescents With ASD

About 25% to 30% of children with ASD fail to acquire spoken language. This group of children
and adolescents with ASD has been neglected in research conducted over the past 2 decades, in
part because the field lacks the tools to assess them, and they often pose significant
behavioral challenges that preclude their participation in research studies. Among the ~70%
individuals with ASD who have spoken language skills, about 50% are language impaired; the
remaining group have normal language scores on standardized tests. To date, studies of brain
and cognitive mechanisms that underlie this heterogeneity in ASD remain limited. The goal of
this study, which is part of the Autism Center of Excellence, is to provide a detailed
description of phenotypic profiles found among minimally verbal individuals diagnosed with
ASD. Participants with ASD ages 4 to 18 will be given comprehensive assessments, including
standardized assessments of language, nonverbal cognitive abilities and adaptive functioning.
Assessments will also include experimental tasks based on using eye-tracking, touch screen
and electrophysiology technology (EEG), parent-report measures and parent-child interaction
measures. The eye-tracking and touch screen assessments will target receptive language, word
learning mechanisms, and social attention deployment to visual and auditory stimuli. The
EEG/ERP assessments will target auditory processing and organization, with specific focus on
mismatch negativity (MMN) markers of auditory processing. Based on these comprehensive
assessments the investigators aim to generate a description of the cognitive-behavioral
phenotypes common to minimally verbal autistic individuals. The investigators will also
investigate age-related patterns in the development of behavioral phenotypes and the role of
symptom severity in shaping phenotypic profiles in this population. The investigators expect
that their findings will provide valuable insights into the etiology of profound expressive
language deficits in a significant proportion of the ASD population and will lead to
identifying subphenotypes within the minimally verbal population.

Inclusion Criteria:

Subjects will be included if they have a formal diagnosis of ASD, are 4-18 years old, and
have a very small repertoire of spoken words or fixed phrases that are used
communicatively, and that are restricted to limited contexts and functions (e.g. requests
with familiar adults).

Exclusion Criteria:

- have a history of significant neurological diseases, TBI, sensory impairment (e.g.,
significant visual or hearing impairment)

- English is not the primary language spoken in the household.