School profile and language and cognitive abilities of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.

Purpose: Verify the association between the time spent at school per week and the performance of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders in non-verbal intelligence test and communicative and behavioral abilities. Methods: Participants were 44 children and adolescents aged 6 to 12 years. All participants were enrolled in regular schools. Results: Of the 44 participants, 20 did not respond to the non-verbal intelligence test. Therefore, the participants were divided into two groups: Group 1 was composed of 24 participants who were assessed in non-verbal intelligence, behavior and communication abilities; Group B comprised 20 participants who were assessed in communication and behavior abilities. Results for Group A showed significant positive correlation between the time spent at school per week and non-verbal intelligence, and significant negative correlation regarding impairments in expressive language and social/pragmatic abilities. Results for Group B presented a tendency to negative correlations in all associations, with significant correlation only with respect to social pragmatics. Conclusion: The overall results for both groups indicate that children with higher non-verbal intelligence scores and better communication and behavior abilities tend to spend more time at school per week.