The new version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD‐11) mentions the existence of four different profiles in the verbal part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), describing them as combinations of either spared or impaired functional language and intellectual abilities. The aim of the present study was to put ASD heterogeneity to the forefront by exploring whether clear profiles related to language and intellectual abilities emerge when investigation is extended to the entire spectrum, focusing on verbal children. Our study proposed a systematic investigation of both language (specifically, structural language abilities) and intellectual abilities (specifically, nonverbal cognitive abilities) in 51 6‐ to 12‐year‐old verbal children with ASD based on explicitly motivated measures. For structural language abilities, sentence repetition and nonword repetition tasks were selected; for nonverbal cognitive abilities, we chose Raven's Progressive Matrices, as well as Matrix Reasoning and Block Design from the Wechsler Scales. An integrative approach based on cluster analyses revealed five distinct profiles. Among these five profiles, all four logically possible combinations of structural language and nonverbal abilities mentioned in the ICD‐11 were detected. Three profiles emerged among children with normal language abilities and two emerged among language‐impaired children. Crucially, the existence of discrepant profiles of abilities suggests that children with ASD can display impaired language in presence of spared nonverbal intelligence or spared language in the presence of impaired nonverbal intelligence, reinforcing the hypothesis of the existence of a separate language module in the brain. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1155‐1167. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

中文翻译：

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通过聚类分析探索识别ASD儿童的语言和认知特征：对新ICD-11的启示。

新版的《国际疾病分类》（ICD-11）提到自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的言语部分存在四种不同的特征，将它们描述为功能语言或智力能力的残缺或受损的组合。本研究的目的是通过探讨在将调查扩展到整个范围时，即针对口头儿童的情况，是否出现与语言和智力相关的清晰档案，从而将ASD的异质性放在首位。我们的研究提出了基于明确动机的措施，对51名6至12岁的ASD口语儿童的语言（特别是结构性语言能力）和智力（特别是非语言认知能力）进行系统调查。对于结构语言能力，选择句子重复和非单词重复任务；对于非语言认知能力，我们选择了Raven的渐进矩阵，并从Wechsler量表中选择了矩阵推理和模块设计。基于聚类分析的综合方法揭示了五个不同的特征。在这五个配置文件中，检测到了ICD-11中提到的结构语言和非语言能力的所有四个逻辑上可能的组合。在具有正常语言能力的儿童中出现了三种情况，在语言障碍的儿童中出现了两种情况。至关重要的是，能力差异的存在表明，患有ASD的儿童在有多余的非语言智力的情况下可以显示语言受损，或者在有非语言智力的存在的情况下可以显示语言受损，自闭症水库2020年，13：1155年至1167年。©2020国际自闭症研究协会，Wiley Periodicals，Inc.。