Pragmatic Language Dysfunction in Autism: “Competence” or “Performance”?

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether pragmatic language difficulties in referential communication could be ameliorated by application of a brief, but directive, prompt and subsequently whether improved performance would generalize to a similar situation employing novel stimuli. Ten high functioning autistic adolescents and young adults were matched for age, sex, and language skill to normally developing subjects, and presented with a barrier game referential communication task. Significantly improved performance occurred following administration of the prompt and was maintained in the generalization condition. Maintained improved performance was interpreted as indicative of a difficulty in initial spontaneous application of available skills (ie. a performance problem) rather than a specific developmental skill deficit (ie. a competence problem).