Symbol Use by Developmentally Disabled Children

Abstract

13 children with a diagnosis of autism and 20 children with a diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia or a variant thereof were compared for skill in symbol use across modalities of expressive language, drawing, gesture, and play. The children were also given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised as a measure of receptive comprehension. Analysis showed that the autistic children had poorer receptive language than the schizophrenic children. The autisic children were poorer in symbol use, as predicted, across all expressive modalities except play, when receptive language was treated as a covariate. Implications of these results for differential identification of children with severe developmental disturbance are discussed.