Autistic children at risk of being underestimated: school-based pilot study of a strength-informed assessment

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Courchesne, V., Meilleur, A. S., Poulin-Lord, M. P., Dawson, M., & Soulières, I. (2015). Autistic children at risk of being underestimated: school-based pilot study of a strength-informed assessment. Molecular Autism, 6(1), 12-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-015-0006-3

Journal or book title
Molecular Autism
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
12-12
Article number
12
Publication date: 5 Mar 2015 Added to AutiHub: 3 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
5
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 5 (20.0%)
  1. Valerie Courchesne
  2. Andrée‐Anne S. Meilleur
  3. Marie-Pier Poulin-Lord
  4. Michelle Dawson *
  5. Isabelle Soulières

Abstract

BACKGROUND: An important minority of school-aged autistic children, often characterized as 'nonverbal' or 'minimally verbal,' displays little or no spoken language. These children are at risk of being judged 'low-functioning' or 'untestable' via conventional cognitive testing practices. One neglected avenue for assessing autistic children so situated is to engage current knowledge of autistic cognitive strengths. Our aim was thus to pilot a strength-informed assessment of autistic children whose poor performance on conventional instruments suggests their cognitive potential is very limited. METHODS: Thirty autistic children (6 to 12 years) with little or no spoken language, attending specialized schools for autistic children with the highest levels of impairment, were assessed using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices board form (RCPM), Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT), and a visual search task. An age-matched control group of 27 typical children was also assessed. RESULTS: None of the autistic children could complete WISC-IV; only six completed any subtest. In contrast, 26 autistic children could complete RCPM, with 17 scoring between the 5th and 90th percentile. Twenty-seven autistic children completed the visual search task, while 26 completed CEFT, on which autistic children were faster than RCPM-matched typical children. Autistic performance on RCPM, CEFT, and visual search were correlated. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that 'minimally verbal' or 'nonverbal' school-aged autistic children may be at risk of being underestimated: they may be wrongly regarded as having little cognitive potential. Our findings support the usefulness of strength-informed approaches to autism and have important implications for the assessment and education of autistic children.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
59
With a DOI
42
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
14
8 / 59 (13.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
5 / 59 (8.5%)
References with detected author names
56 / 59 (94.9%)
Without detected author names
3
Without a structured title
5
Without a stable identifier
14
References with raw author names still to review
3
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
151
From DOI or external metadata
151
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
72 / 151 (47.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 79 / 151 (52.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
8 / 151 (5.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 8 / 72 (11.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 2 / 117 (1.7%).
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