Brief report: Predicting inner speech use amongst children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): the roles of verbal ability and cognitive profile.

The team looked back at old test scores from the kids with autism.

They wanted to know what best predicts who uses inner speech.

They checked verbal IQ, non-verbal IQ, and the gap between them.

Only the child’s raw verbal ability mattered.

The size of the verbal-nonverbal gap added no extra clue.

Kids with higher verbal scores used inner speech more, period.

Coolican et al. (2008) and Fyfe et al. (2007) first showed the classic pattern: kids with ASD often score higher on non-verbal than verbal tests.

Busch et al. (2010) now say that pattern is a red herring; ignore the gap and look only at the verbal score.

Reichard et al. (2019) and Seiverling et al. (2018) back this up. They tracked language growth and found absolute verbal level, not any profile shape, predicts later skills.

Together, these studies move the field from ‘look at the split’ to ‘look at the verbal score alone.’

When you test a child with ASD, skip the IQ-gap story. Just note their strongest verbal score. That single number tells you who is likely to use self-talk to solve problems, plan tasks, or follow rules.