Perception of pragmatic skills by speech therapists and parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

PURPOSE: To analyze the perceptions of speech therapists and parents or guardians regarding the performance of pragmatic skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), between 2 and 12 years old, undergoing speech therapy.

METHOD: Cross-sectional, prospective, observational, analytical study, conducted in a speech therapy clinic in the Midwestern Region of Brazil, including two groups and convenience sampling: Group 1. nine speech therapists who were caring for 70 children with ASD, in the established age range; Group 2. 70 parents or guardians or caregivers of these children. Participants responded to the Protocol for the Assessment of Pragmatic Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (PAHPEA). Descriptive analyses were conducted to identify the children's pragmatic difficulties perceived by the two groups, Mann-Whitney U test to compare the perceptions of participants in the two groups about the children's pragmatic skills, and Spearman rho correlational analysis to verify the occurrence of an association between these perceptions of participants in both groups.

RESULTS

A statistically significant difference was found in three of the five factors covered by PAHPEA (responsiveness, functionality, and inadequacy), as the members of Group 1 interpreted the children's performance differently from that of the participants in Group 2.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the perceptions of speech therapists and parents or guardians were similar in almost all factors and questions evaluated.