This study of 8-16-year-olds was designed to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension impairments are part of the social communication phenotype for many higher-functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Students with HFASD (n = 81) were compared to those with high attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptomatology…

Eleven autistic children, age 8-19, were administered a variation of the Stroop task which involved comprehending single words that differed along a concrete-abstract dimension and that exhibited varying amounts of interference. Both concrete and abstract words appeared as meaningful to autistic children as to reading-matched controls. (Author/JDD)