COGNITIVE PROFILES IN THE AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Background:

Researches on the cognitive profiles of the children with autism demonstrated superior skills in the field of the spatial abstraction and of the reasoning by visual analogy (Mottron).

Objectives:

The purpose of our study is 1/ to observe the possible duplication of the results of Mottron while widening it to a younger population, 2/  to compare the cognitive skills at different ages, 3/ to discuss on the skills of the autistic children according to their age and their cognitive deficit.   Methods: Two groups participated this study : Group 1 : from 3 to 6 years olded children/Group 2 : from 6 to 16 years olded children.
Each of these two groups is subdivided into two subgroups: a group with a global cognitive delay and a group without global cognitive delay. The cognitive skills were tested whith the WPPSI III and the WISC III, IV. 

Results:

The first results confirm those of Mottron who demonstrates a peak of skill in cube only in from 6 to 16 years olded high-level autistic children.
On the other hand we observe in the younger autistic children a peak of skill in the task in puzzles but not in the task of the cubes.
This skill represents a peak of performance in the young autistic children with or without mental deficiency.

Conclusions:

These results demonstrate a specific cognitive profile in autism based on the spatial structuralization and the visual analysis.