The Relationship among Sidedness, Communicative Function and Age in Autistic Students

There are relationship between language and communication disorders, sidedness problems and age in autistic students. This research is aimed to investigate the possible relationship among sidedness, communicative function and age in autistic students. This is a described-analytic research and a kind of cross sectional and comparative one. For these purpose 40 autistic students with age average 10 years and 8 month (SD= 2 year and 5 months) were chosen with convenience sampling method. Communicative function questionnaire were completed by all subjects’ parents. We used observation check list to examine handedness, footedness, and dominant eye and ear. By using of T-test (independent samples t- test) and Friedman K2, data were analyzed. Data analysis indicated that autistic student with age (>13) tended to definite sidedness preference- in hand and ear not in eye and foot (p<0.05) and better communicative function (p<0.05). Importance of intervention rehabilitation for stability of sidedness, especially in younger, can perform important role in having high language and communication skills.