Evidence for distinct cognitive profiles in autism spectrum disorders and specific language impairment.
A quick hidden-shape test spots kids with specific language impairment but not autism, helping you tell the two apart.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the Children's Embedded Figures Test to three groups: kids with autism, kids with specific language impairment, and typically developing peers.
They wanted to see if the hidden-shape task could tell the groups apart.
No therapy was given; this was a straight comparison study.
What they found
Only the SLI group struggled with the hidden-shape puzzle.
Kids with autism scored like typical kids, even when language was delayed.
The result hints that SLI has its own visual-processing signature, separate from autism.
How this fits with other research
Goldstein et al. (1991) once saw autism and language-impaired kids look alike on sequential-processing tasks. The new data show the overlap stops at embedded figures; SLI stands alone there.
Vugs et al. (2013) meta-analysis already found SLI kids lag on visuospatial working-memory tests. The CEFT weakness fits that pattern and gives clinicians a quick visual probe.
Qiao et al. (2025) later split autism into two brain-based subtypes using scans. Fine-grain cognitive work like the CEFT finding feeds those newer models that push beyond one-label-fits-all.
Why it matters
If a child fails the simple hidden-shape game yet talks late, think SLI first, not autism. The test is fast, paper-based, and now evidence-backed. Match your language goals—and your referrals—to the right profile instead of lumping everyone under the autism umbrella.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Findings that a subgroup of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have linguistic capabilities that resemble specific language impairment (SLI) have led some authors to hypothesise that ASD and SLI have a shared aetiology. While considerable research has explored overlap in the language phenotypes of the two conditions, little research has examined possible overlap in cognitive characteristics. In this study, we explored nonword and sentence repetition performance, as well as performance on the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) for children with ASD or SLI. As expected, 'language impaired' children with ASD (ALI) and children with SLI performed worse than both 'language normal' ASD (ALN) and typically developing (TD) children on the nonword and sentence repetition tests. Further, the SLI children performed worse than all other groups on the CEFT. This finding supports distinct cognitive profiles in ASD and SLI and may provide further evidence for distinct aetiological mechanisms in the two conditions.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2014 · doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1847-2