BACKGROUND An important minority of school-aged autistic children, often characterized as 'nonverbal' or 'minimally verbal,' displays little or no spoken language. These children are at risk of being judged 'low-functioning' or 'untestable' via conventional cognitive testing practices. One neglected avenue for assessing autistic children so situated is to engage current knowledge of autistic cognitive strengths. Our aim was thus to pilot a strength-informed assessment of autistic children whose poor performance on conventional instruments suggests their cognitive potential is very limited. METHODS Thirty autistic children (6 to 12 years) with little or no spoken language, attending specialized schools for autistic children with the highest levels of impairment, were assessed using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices board form (RCPM), Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT), and a visual search task. An age-matched control group of 27 typical children was also assessed. RESULTS None of the autistic children could complete WISC-IV; only six completed any subtest. In contrast, 26 autistic children could complete RCPM, with 17 scoring between the 5th and 90th percentile. Twenty-seven autistic children completed the visual search task, while 26 completed CEFT, on which autistic children were faster than RCPM-matched typical children. Autistic performance on RCPM, CEFT, and visual search were correlated. CONCLUSION These results indicate that 'minimally verbal' or 'nonverbal' school-aged autistic children may be at risk of being underestimated: they may be wrongly regarded as having little cognitive potential. Our findings support the usefulness of strength-informed approaches to autism and have important implications for the assessment and education of autistic children.

中文翻译：

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自闭症儿童有被低估的风险：基于学校的强度研究评估试验。

背景技术通常以“非语言”或“最小口头”为特征的少数学龄自闭症儿童很少或没有口头语言。通过传统的认知测试方法，这些儿童有被判定为“低功能”或“令人不快”的风险。评估如此自闭症儿童的一种被忽视的途径是利用自闭症认知能力的最新知识。因此，我们的目的是对自闭症儿童进行以强度为依据的评估，这些儿童在常规仪器上的表现较差，表明他们的认知潜力非常有限。方法30名自闭症儿童（6至12岁）很少或没有口语，就读于受损程度最高的自闭症儿童专门学校，使用Wechsler儿童智能量表（WISC-IV），Raven彩色进阶矩阵板形式（RCPM），儿童嵌入式数字测验（CEFT）和视觉搜索任务对儿童进行了评估。还评估了一个年龄匹配的27名典型儿童的对照组。结果自闭症儿童均无法完成WISC-IV。只有六个人完成了任何子测验。相比之下，有26名自闭症儿童可以完成RCPM，其中17分的得分介于5％和90％之间。27名自闭症儿童完成了视觉搜索任务，而26名完成了CEFT，其中自闭症儿童比RCPM匹配的典型儿童更快。RCPM，CEFT和视觉搜索的自闭表现相关。结论这些结果表明“最少是语言”或“非语言” 学龄自闭症儿童可能有被低估的风险：他们可能被错误地认为具有很少的认知潜能。我们的发现支持以力量为依据的自闭症方法的有用性，并且对自闭症儿童的评估和教育具有重要意义。