Exploring the clinical features of minimally verbal autistic children

SILVIA GUERRERA ^1* Elisa Fucà ¹ Emanuela Petrolo ¹ Andrea De Stefano ^2,3 Laura Casula ¹ Maria Grazia Logrieco ⁴ Giovanni Valeri ¹ Stefano Vicari ^1,5

• ¹ Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital (IRCCS), Rome, Lazio, Italy
• ² Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic (IRCCS), Rome, Lazio, Italy
• ³ Department of Neuroscience, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy
• ⁴ Department of Humanities, University of Foggia, Foggia, Apulia, Italy
• ⁵ Department of Life Sciences and Public Health, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Introduction. It is recognized that around 25-30% of autistic children do not develop functional speech and remain minimally verbal beyond the age of 5. However, just a little is really known about the clinical characteristics of this group. Methods. We retrospectively examined a sample of 189 autistic children and adolescents classified as minimally verbal (mean age: 7.37±1.51; 152 males, 37 females) and compared them with a group of 184 verbally autistic children and adolescents (mean age: 7.71±2.52; 160 males, 24 females). We considered intellectual functioning, severity of autism, emotional and behavioural problems, and parenting stress. Results. Children in the minimally verbal group have exhibited significantly lower nonverbal Intelligent Quotient and an increase in restricted repetitive behaviours compared to the verbally group. Exploring potential differences in emotional and behavioural problems, the verbally group showed a higher levels of anxiety symptoms. In addition, minimally verbal group, showed high score of parenting stress. Discussion. This study highlights the importance of accurately characterizing minimally verbal autistic children and adolescents to facilitate the identification of specific and individualized interventions based on individual functioning profiles.