Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Sex/gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Jessica Barsotti
,
Gloria Mangani
,
Roberta Nencioli
,
Antonio Narzisi
ORCID logo ,
Lucia Pfanner
,
Anna Maria Chilosi
,
Paola Cipriani
,
Alice Mancini
,
Angela Cosenza
,
Raffaella Tancredi
,
Sara Calderoni
*
Version 1 : Received: 22 June 2023 / Approved: 26 June 2023 / Online: 26 June 2023 (13:54:32 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Barsotti, J.; Mangani, G.; Nencioli, R.; Narzisi, A.; Pfanner, L.; Chilosi, A.M.; Cipriani, P.; Mancini, A.; Cosenza, A.; Tancredi, R.; Calderoni, S. Sex/Gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective Study. J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12, 4923. Barsotti, J.; Mangani, G.; Nencioli, R.; Narzisi, A.; Pfanner, L.; Chilosi, A.M.; Cipriani, P.; Mancini, A.; Cosenza, A.; Tancredi, R.; Calderoni, S. Sex/Gender Differences in the Language Profiles of Italian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Retrospective Study. J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12, 4923.

Abstract

Sex/gender (S/G) differences in ASD language profiles have been poorly investigated. The present study aims to explore whether male (M) and female (F) children with ASD and with normal non-verbal cognitive abilities differ in their linguistic profiles. A sample of 76 Italian children with ASD (range: 4.9 – 8 years), including 50 M and 26 F, was retrospectively recruited. Language profiles were analyzed using standardized tests for the evaluation of receptive and expressive vocabulary as well as grammar. Grammatical comprehension was the most impaired domain compared to the other language measures in both M and F children. Comparing language profiles between S/G, F showed significantly better scores than M in grammatical production (p=.002), and M showed better active negative sentences comprehension (p=.035). Moreover, comparing the language profiles between M and F with receptive disorder, F had significantly worse grammatical comprehension and better grammatical production than M. Even among children without receptive disorder, F had significantly higher grammatical production scores. The S/G differences in language profile, particularly better expressive language in F than M, can partially contribute to the delayed ASD diagnosis or underdiagnosis of F without intellectual disability. Finally, our results document the importance of accurately investigating both expressive and receptive abilities in children with ASD.

Keywords

Language and communication; sex/gender; Autism Spectrum Disorder; children

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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