Role of age and IQ in emotion understanding in Autism Spectrum Disorder: implications for educational interventions

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by impairments in social communication and social cognition. Difficulties in emotion understanding, from emotion recognition to emotion regulation are common features that can affect the inclusion process. One outstanding question is the extent to which age and IQ affect such impairments. The effect of IQ and age on emotion understanding was estimated in 55 children with ASD aged between 5 and 10 and with IQ ranging from 70 to 130. Emotion understanding and non-verbal cognitive ability were assessed, respectively, with the Test of Emotion Comprehension and the Leiter-R scale. The majority of participants scored significantly lower on the TEC compared to the normative sample. Performance compared against norms decreased with age and improved with increasing IQ; children with ‘borderline cognitive functioning’ performed significantly worse than children with ‘normative cognitive functioning’. Emotion understanding skills in children with ASD are affected by cognitive level and age. Implications for educational interventions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Autism
• IQ
• emotion understanding
• normative cognitive functioning
• borderline cognitive functioning
• Test of Emotion Comprehension

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge clinicians and researchers for their role in data collection at each of the recruiting sites. For sites affiliated to the University of Turin: Giuseppe Maurizio Arduino, Francesca Brunero, Francesca Vinai, Roberto Zamboni (Centro Autismo e Sindrome di Asperger, Ospedale Regina Montis Regalis, Mondovì, ASLCN1), Cristina Belfiore, Valentino Franchitti, Patrizia Gindri (San Camillo). For sites affiliated to the University of Lausanne: Nadège Foudon and Sabine Magnificat (University of Lyon); Angela di Fulvio, Corinne Abarno (DSAN, SUPSI, Switzerland); Nicolas Rudelli (Fondazione Ares Switzerland); Antonio Salandi (IRCSS Eugenio Medea, La Nostra Famiglia, Como). We are grateful to families for participating in the study.