A comparison of social cognitive profiles in children with autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a matter of quantitative but not qualitative difference?
Kids with ADHD show a social-cognitive deficit pattern similar to kids with autism—just milder—so screen and treat social skills in ADHD too.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Demopoulos et al. (2013) compared social-cognitive skills in kids with autism and kids with ADHD.
They used standard tests of emotion reading, false-belief tasks, and social problem solving.
The goal was to see if the two groups look the same or show a different pattern of problems.
What they found
Both groups scored below typical kids on every social task.
The autism group was more severe, but the shape of the problems was nearly identical to ADHD.
In short, the difference was size, not style.
How this fits with other research
Crisci et al. (2026) found the same overlap: half of each clinical group lands in a shared 'social-deficit plus dysregulation' profile, backing the idea that the profiles are alike.
Dellapiazza et al. (2021) extended the work by adding kids who have both autism and ADHD. They showed that extra social impairment tracks with ADHD severity, fitting the dose-like pattern Carly saw.
Rosello et al. (2022) systematic review looks contradictory at first glance—it says the combined group is 'more severe.' In fact, the review and Carly agree: more ADHD symptoms add more social trouble; the profiles stay parallel, just scaled up.
Why it matters
If you work with kids who have ADHD, do not assume social skills are fine. Screen them the same way you screen kids with autism, then teach greetings, sharing, and reading facial cues. One solid move: add a social-cognitive target to the ADHD behavior plan next week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this study was to compare social cognitive profiles of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and ADHD. Participants diagnosed with an ASD (n = 137) were compared to participants with ADHD (n = 436) on tests of facial and vocal affect recognition, social judgment and problem-solving, and parent- and teacher-report of social functioning. Both groups performed significantly worse than the normative sample on all measures. Although the ASD group had more severe deficits, the pattern of deficits was surprisingly similar between groups, suggesting that social cognitive deficit patterns may be more similar in ASD and ADHD than previously thought. Thus, like those with ASDs, individuals with ADHD may also need to be routinely considered for treatments targeting social skills.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2013 · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1657-y