Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología (2012) 32, 2---6 Revista de LOGOPEDIA, FONIATRÍA y AUDIOLOGÍA www.elsevier.es/logopedia ORIGINAL ARTICLE Language therapy results with children of the autism spectrum  Fernanda Dreux Miranda Fernandes * , Cibelle Albuquerque De La Higuera Amato, Daniela Regina Molini-Avejonas Department of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Language and Hearing Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Received 7 October 2010; accepted 22 July 2011 Available online 17 February 2012 KEYWORDS Autism; Communication; Language therapy; Speech-language pathology Abstract Communication disorders of children with autism spectrum disorders will probably follow them throughout life if they are not included in remediation and communication inter- vention programs. The aim of this research was to identify observed changes in the Functional Communicative Profile (initiative, interaction, functions and means) and in the Social Cognitive Performance (vocal and gestural communicative intent, vocal and gestural imitation, tool use, combinatory and symbolic play) after 6 months of language therapy. Subjects were 50 children and adolescents (mean age 9:3y), with diagnosis within the autistic spectrum attributed by a child psychiatrist, enrolled in a specialized language therapy program at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. All subjects were filmed twice, with a six-month interval, after the first six-months of the therapy onset. Statistical analysis of data used non-parametric tests with a significance level of 0.5%. Results showed that all subjects presented at least one progress index and that 96% of them presented progress in the Functional Communicative Profile. These results suggest that it is possible to identify objective improvement indexes after a relatively short period of language therapy with individuals of the autism spectrum. Objective information about thera- peutic results may favor better integration of intervention procedures and therefore enhance the possibilities of further improvements. © 2010 AELFA. Published by Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved. PALABRAS CLAVE Autismo; Comunicación; Logopedia; Terapia de lenguaje Resultados de terapia de lenguaje con ni˜ nos del espectro autista Resumen Los trastornos de comunicación en ni˜ nos del espectro autista posiblemente per- sistirán a lo largo de sus vidas especialmente si ellos no reciben atención especializada en comunicación y lenguaje. El objetivo principal de esta investigación consiste en identificar mod- ificaciones en el Perfil Funcional de Comunicación (iniciativa, interacción, funciones y medios) y en el Desempe˜ no Sociocognitivo (intención comunicativa vocal y gestual, imitación vocal y gestual, uso de instrumentos y de juego combinatorio y simbólico) después de seis meses DOI of refers to article: 10.1016/j.rlfa.2011.12.002  Este artículo está disponible en espa˜ nol en www.elsevier.es/logopedia. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: fernandadreux@usp.br (F.D.M. Fernandes). 0214-4603/$ – see front matter © 2010 AELFA. Published by Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rlfa.2011.12.001 Documento descargado de http://www.elsevier.es el 11/11/2016. Copia para uso personal, se prohíbe la transmisión de este documento por cualquier medio o formato.