Table 1
Descriptives: n, mean (and SD) for Age (months), and Male:Female ratio; Standardised scores for each of the cognitive assessments administered: British Picture Vocabulary Scale, 3rd Edition (BPVS-3); The Matrices, Word Definitions, and Backward Digit Recall subscales from the British Ability Scales, 3rd Edition; Recalling Sentences subscale from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 5th Edition; Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN Digits) from the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, 2nd Edition; Questionnaires mean (and SD) for Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire Sum score (CSHQ), Gilliam Autism Rating Scale Autism Index (GARS) and the GCC and SIDC scales from the CCC-2.
| TD | ASD | DLD | TD V ASD T | TD V DLD T | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descriptives | n | 21 | 19 | 16 | – | – |
| Age | 128.0 (15.2) | 132.2 (15.8) | 123.1 (17.3) | – | – | |
| M:F | 15:6 | 15:4 | 7:9 | – | – | |
| Standardised scores | BPVS–3 | 110.0 (8.7) | 102.6 (20.3) | 76.2 (17.5) | 1.82 | 7.08*** |
| Recalling sentences | 111.0 (12.9) | 97.1 (20.6) | 70.6 (15.5) | 2.51* | 8.43*** | |
| Word definitions | 109.4 (13.2) | 102.3 (19.5) | 73.0 (19.4) | 1.34 | 6.48*** | |
| B’ward digit span | 106.6 (18.0) | 101.1 (14.7) | 78.1 (13.6) | 1.06 | 5.49*** | |
| Matrices | 111.5 (16.1) | 102.7 (20.3) | 77.5 (8.8) | 1.51 | 8.20*** | |
| RAN digits | 107.4 (11.4) | 90.8 (24.8) | 79.7 (13.7) | 2.67* | 6.54*** | |
| Questionnaires | CSHQ sum | 45.3 (15.7) | 51.9 (6.6) | 49.4 (7.0) | –1.77 | –1.07 |
| GARS Autism Index | 52.0 (6.6) | 96.0 (14.2) | 73.9 (19.5) | –12.32*** | –4.29*** | |
| CCC_GCC | 86.0 (19.4) | 34.4 (16.6) | 30.6 (20.4) | 9.05*** | 8.35*** | |
| CCC_SIDC | –4.1 (8.1) | –11.6 (8.2) | 10.1 (7.7) | 2.88** | –5.45*** |
Figure 1
Children’s Communication Checklist (2nd edition) scores. A GCC score below 55 in conjunction with a negative SIDC score (marked by the purple box) indicates social communication difficulties consistent with autism spectrum conditions; a GCC score below 55 in conjunction with an SIDC of 10 or more (marked by the blue box) is consistent with a structural language difficulty.
Figure 2
Autism Index scores on the GARS3 for the Typically Developing (TD; n = 21), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n = 19) and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD; n = 16) groups.
Figure 3
Example string of items. The item highlighted in red is a catch trial.
Figure 4
Grand average activity at each electrode for each group. Grey rectangles indicate 400–500 ms post stimulus onset. Shaded regions surrounding the curves indicate bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals.
Table 2
Fixed and random effects for model at 400–500 ms post stimulus onset. Model formed from 35,830 observations: 21 participants across 2 sessions. Significance levels: *** at p < 0.001, ** p < 0.001, * p < 0.05.
| FIXED EFFECTS | RANDOM EFFECTS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | 95% CI | T | P | SUBJECT | UP | |||||
| LOWER | UPPER | SD | SD | |||||||
| (Intercept) | –6.37 | –7.45 | –5.30 | –11.614 | <0.001*** | 2.31 | 1.64 | |||
| Day1v2 | 2.08 | 1.59 | 2.57 | 8.290 | <0.001*** | |||||
| Electrode Cz v Fz | 0.15 | –0.26 | 0.57 | 0.726 | 0.468 | |||||
| Electrode Cz v C3 | 0.07 | –0.34 | 0.48 | 0.341 | 0.733 | |||||
| Electrode Cz v C4 | –0.84 | –1.26 | –0.41 | –3.844 | <0.001*** | |||||
| Presentation 1v2 | 0.06 | –0.53 | 0.66 | 0.208 | 0.835 | |||||
| Presentation 2v3 | 0.59 | 0.00 | 1.18 | 1.952 | 0.051 | |||||
| Lexicality | –0.25 | –1.01 | 0.52 | –0.635 | 0.527 | |||||
| Day:Lexicality | 0.89 | –0.08 | 1.86 | 1.799 | 0.072 | |||||
Table 3
Fixed and random effects for model at 400–500 ms post stimulus onset. Model formed from 90,805 observations: 56 participants across 2 sessions. Significance levels: *** at p < 0.001, ** p < 0.001, * p < 0.05.
| FIXED EFFECTS | RANDOM EFFECTS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | 95% CI | T | P | SUBJECT | UP | |||||
| LOWER | UPPER | SD | SD | |||||||
| (Intercept) | –5.29 | –5.88 | –4.70 | –17.586 | <0.001*** | 2.01 | 0.97 | |||
| Day1v2 | 1.83 | 1.52 | 2.15 | 11.288 | <0.001*** | |||||
| Group TDvASD | 1.23 | –0.06 | 2.53 | 1.863 | 0.068 | |||||
| Group TDvDLD | 1.95 | 0.58 | 3.31 | 2.790 | 0.007** | |||||
| Electrode Cz v Fz | 0.05 | –0.21 | 0.31 | 0.376 | 0.707 | |||||
| Electrode Cz v C3 | 0.15 | –0.12 | 0.41 | 1.091 | 0.275 | |||||
| Electrode Cz v C4 | –0.87 | –1.13 | –0.60 | –6.401 | <0.001*** | |||||
| Presentation 1v2 | 0.07 | –0.31 | 0.46 | 0.379 | 0.705 | |||||
| Presentation 2v3 | 0.17 | –0.21 | 0.55 | 0.891 | 0.373 | |||||
| Lexicality | –0.64 | –1.12 | –0.17 | –2.671 | 0.008** | |||||
| Day:Group(TDvASD) | 0.39 | –0.31 | 1.09 | 1.097 | 0.273 | |||||
| Day:Group(TDvDLD) | –1.14 | –1.95 | –0.33 | –2.742 | 0.006** | |||||
| Group(TDvASD):Pres. (1v2) | 0.09 | –0.77 | 0.94 | 0.201 | 0.841 | |||||
| Group(TDvDLD):Pres. (1v2) | –0.01 | –0.99 | 0.97 | –0.014 | 0.989 | |||||
| Group(TDvASD):Pres. (2v3) | –0.74 | –1.59 | 0.11 | –1.714 | 0.086 | |||||
| Group(TDvDLD):Pres. (2v3) | –0.56 | –1.52 | 0.41 | –1.129 | 0.259 | |||||
| Group(TDvASD):Lexicality | –1.28 | –1.97 | –0.58 | –3.599 | <0.001*** | |||||
| Group(TDvDLD):Lexicality | –0.28 | –1.08 | 0.51 | –0.697 | 0.486 | |||||
Figure 5
Interactions between a) Day and Group b) Lexicality and Group, with mean values given; error bars show 95% CI.