This work was supported by a grant from Shalem Fund
The study examined changes in cognitive, social, and adaptive behavior domains among adults with comorbidity of autism and IDD across three age groups (25-34, 35-44, 45+), along two trajectories: accelerated aging and stable development. Crystallized intelligence showed stability until age 44 with significantly lower scores from age 45 onwards. Fluid intelligence showed higher scores in the 35-44 age group compared to the 25-34 age group, followed by stability. Adaptive behavior demonstrated stability until age 44 with significantly lower scores from age 45 onwards. Correlations were found between crystallized intelligence and adaptive behavior, while fluid intelligence was not associated with adaptive behavior. Additionally, autism characteristics were found to contribute to explaining the variance in all intelligence and adaptive behavior measures.
Keywords: Autism and IDD comorbidity, aging in autism, compensatory age, crystallized and fluid intelligence, adaptive behavior in autism, adults on the autism spectrum, cognitive developmental trajectories, accelerated aging in intellectual disability.
The English Abstract>>