Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34008921›Full record

ArticleAutism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research2021

Measuring social-communication difficulties in school-age siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder: Standardized versus naturalistic assessment.

Devon N Gangi, Monique Moore Hill, Shyeena Maqbool, Gregory S Young, Sally Ozonoff

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 31% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Narrative Ability in Autism and First-Degree Relatives.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Devon N GangiDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-2885-4641
Monique Moore HillDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.
Shyeena MaqboolDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.
Gregory S YoungDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.
Sally OzonoffDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento, California, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1230-0794
University of California, Davis · US

Funding

Longitudinal Investigation of Social-Communication and Attention Processes in School-Aged Children at Genetic Risk for AutismR01MH109541 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI OZONOFF, SALLY · 2016 to 2020
$3.2M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH109541
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; high-risk siblings) are at elevated risk for developing the broader autism phenotype (BAP), which consists of subclinical features of ASD. We examined conversational skills in a naturalistic context and standardized assessments of pragmatic language and communication skills in high-risk and low-risk school-age children with BAP (n = 22) and ASD (n = 18) outcomes, as well as comparison children without ASD or BAP (n = 135). Children with BAP characteristics exhibited lower conversational skills than comparison children, but did not differ on any of three standardized measures. Only the conversational ratings significantly predicted membership in the BAP versus Comparison group. This suggests that naturalistic tasks are crucial when assessing social-communication difficulties in children with a family history of ASD. LAY SUMMARY: The broader autism phenotype (BAP) consists of subclinical features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is more common among family members of those with ASD. School-age children with BAP characteristics exhibited lower conversational skills than comparison children, but did not differ on standardized language measures tapping similar abilities. This suggests that naturalistic tasks may be more sensitive to the social-communication difficulties seen in some children with a family history of ASD than the standardized language tests used in most evaluations.

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderAutistic DisorderChildCommunicationHumansSchoolsSiblingsbroader autism phenotypehigh-risk siblingsmeasurementsocial communication

Identifiers

PMID34008921
PMCPMC8434950
OpenAlexW3162667243

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.