He said, she said: Autism spectrum diagnosis and gender differentially affect relationships between executive functions and social communication.
In school-age autism, executive function and social communication are tightly linked in boys but not in girls.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chouinard et al. (2019) looked at how executive function ties to social communication in kids with and without autism. They asked whether this link changes when you compare boys to girls.
The team tested school-age youth. They measured planning, working memory, and flexibility. Then they checked how these skills lined up with social scores.
What they found
The link between executive skills and social communication was stronger in boys with autism than in girls with autism. Typical kids showed a smaller gender gap.
Put simply, when a boy with autism struggles to plan or shift tasks, his social struggles are usually bigger. In girls, the same EF score told us less about social skill.
How this fits with other research
Bölte et al. (2011) already showed high-functioning girls outperforming boys on EF tests. Brea now adds that, in boys, those lower scores couple tightly with social problems.
Rodriguez-Seijas et al. (2020) saw a similar boy-only pattern in preschool: fine motor skill predicted social affect in males only. The gender-specific link appears across age bands.
Fleury et al. (2018) seems to disagree: toddler girls displayed more social-communication deficits, not less. The clash fades when you note age and method: toddlers were rated by checklist, while Brea used older kids and direct EF tasks.
Kiep et al. (2017) and Shawler et al. (2021) found sex differences that mirror typical development; they did not spot an autism-only interaction. Brea’s interaction effect may be unique to the school-age window or to the metacognitive EF tasks they chose.
Why it matters
Check both EF and social domains in boys with autism; poor planning or flexibility can flag hidden social risk. In girls, do not trust EF scores alone to gauge social needs—probe play and conversation directly. Tailoring assessments by gender gives you a clearer picture and avoids missed goals.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by difficulties with social communication, with a preponderance in males. Evidence supports a relationship between metacognitive executive functions (e.g. planning, working memory) and social communication in autism spectrum disorder, yet relationships with specific metacognitive executive functions and how gender alters the expression of these relationships require further study. We used multiple regression to examine relationships between informant-based measures of metacognitive executive function and social communication in intellectually able (IQ ⩾ 85) female (n = 111; mean age = 10.2 ± 2.8; 31 autism spectrum disorder) and male youth (n = 310; mean age = 10.5 ± 1.9; 146 autism spectrum disorder) with and without autism spectrum disorder from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange-II database. Executive function-social communication relationships were different in females and males with autism spectrum disorder. Relationships between the entire metacognitive index and social communication were stronger in males with autism spectrum disorder than without; this pattern was also observed for metacognitive sub-indices 'monitor' and 'working memory'. These patterns were not observed in females. Relationships between executive function and social communication appear different for female and male youth with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. To better understand the nature of metacognitive contributions to social communication in autism spectrum disorder, future work should investigate the co-development of monitoring, working memory and social communication, while taking gender into account.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318815639