The Canonical Correlation between Executive Function and Social Skill and their Relationship to Physical Quality in Children with Autism

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between executive function and social skill and their relationship to physical quality in children with ASD. METHODS: A cross-sectional research design was used to investigate 117 school-age children with ASD and 311 typically developing children by using the BRIEF scale, the Social Responsiveness Scale, and physical function tests. Canonical correlations were used to analyze the relationship between executive function and social skill, and analyses of variance and correlations were used to explore the relationship between physical quality and the two. RESULTS: Children with ASD had significantly lower dimensions of executive function and social skill than typically developing children (p < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the two categories of executive function scores and social skill scores (1st canonical correlation coefficient: 0.641, P < 0.001), and 20.4% of the variance in social skill was related to executive function. Physical quality had an effect on both canonical correlated variables, but balance quality was not significantly related (P > 0.05), and grip strength had the strongest correlation (r = -0.485 to -0.535, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: There was a strong interrelationship between executive function and social skill in school-age children with ASD, and potential changes in physical quality contributed to the improvement of both symptoms.