Performance of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Children with Pragmatic Language Impairment on an Emotion Recognition Task

Background: This study examines emotion recognition ability in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and children with Pragmatic Language Impairment (PLI). Children across the autism spectrum, irrespective of cognitive functioning or categorical separation, all share a similar linguistic profile that includes a delay in pragmatic language. Pragmatic language impairment results in delayed ability to use language appropriately in a given context. It has also been linked with significant difficulty interpreting other people’s behavior and impaired social interaction. This social/linguistic profile is seen in both children with pragmatic language impairment and children with autism spectrum disorders. Objectives: The objective of this study was investigate whether there is a syndrome group difference in emotion-recognition discrimination ability in high functioning school-age children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), children with Pragmatic Language Impairment (PLI), and typically developing children who are matched on language age and IQ. Methods: Participants included 22 school-aged children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (mean age = 10.2), 19 children with pragmatic language impairment (mean age = 9.6), and 35 typically developing comparisons (mean age = 10.5) (N=76). Participants had fluid language and an IQ above 80. All participants were tested on the children’s version of the Mind in the Eyes emotion recognition test. Cognitive ability and direction of eye gaze in the stimuli photos was controlled for in the analysis of the data.Results: When controlling for IQ, performance of the disorder groups differed significantly from typically developing comparisons when the person in the test photograph was thinking about an emotional event (e.g. “thinking about something sad”). Atypical groups did not differ from the comparison group on emotions identified as being felt directly by the person in the photograph (e.g. “feeling sad” or “feeling happy”). IQ had a significant influence on the ability to recognize emotion for all groups. No significant relationships were found between direction of eye gaze and ability to recognize emotion. Conclusions: The pattern of findings suggest that IQ has the greatest influence on the ability of children with ASD and PLI to recognize emotion, with lowered IQ scores increasing the probability of misinterpreting emotions displayed in the eye region of the face. This study has provided more evidence that children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, who have fluent language and an average IQ, do not have the significant impairments in emotion recognition, previously thought to be displayed by this group. Diminished abilities are present in both children with Pragmatic Language Impairments and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, when the emotions being displayed represent past emotions.