Effects of executive function stimulation in the language improvement of children with ASD

The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurobiological disorder that involves deficits currently classified into two areas:. – social communication and interaction across multiple contexts; – restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. Although, these disorders do not have any causal relationship, both are always present. It has increasingly been sought methods aiming at the effectiveness of intervention for this population seeking to include all aspects. A promising research field is the one that considers the interdependence of the language and cognition areas, specifically regarding executive functions. This study was designed to verify the effectiveness of an executive functions stimulation program (EFS) during the regular speech-language therapy sessions and its impact in language development, specifically in the pragmatic aspects, through the evaluation of the functional profile of communication (FPC) in 14 children with ASD. During a 12-week period of regular speech-language therapy, the following areas were focused: working memory, cognitive flexibility, central coherence, inhibitory control and specific language aspects. Data were registered and analyzed statistically. The average performance of children in the stimulation was 85%, ensuring the effectiveness of EFS. The association analysis between pre- and post-EFS performance with FCP a significant improvement was observed in the occupation of the communicative space and the percentage of interactivity. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of the study, which believes in strong association between communication aspects and executive functions skills.