Speech understanding in primary schoolchildren with autism spectrum disorders and its relationship with EEG characteristics.

The article discussed ASD heterogeneity in terms of the severity of autistic manifestations, cognitive and speech abilities in children with different levels of functioning. We present results of a study of speech understanding at the level of phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax and discourse in primary schoolchildren with ASD. The study revealed correlations between the severity of autistic manifestations of a socio-communicative nature and non-verbal IQ with various aspects of speech understanding. Comparison of the correlations in the subgroups of children with different levels of functioning and needed various degrees of adaptation of educational programs revealed differences between the subgroups, indicating different mechanisms of disorders. The differences of the spectral characteristics of the EEG in children with ASD compared with the age norm, and characteristics in the studied subgroups are shown. It is concluded that milder functioning problems can be associated with regulatory brain disorders, while more serious ones are based on a complex of factors, including organic disorders.