Syntatic complexity in children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment

Traditionally, Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been seen as two distinct conditions with different etiologies. More recently, there has been much discussion about the points which separate these pathologies, but mainly concern about the similarities between both, as well as about the possibility of a common etiology and an intersection at the genetic level. Some authors present evidence suggesting that these two conditions share common factors. Several studies focused on language acquisition of children diagnosed with autism and described different atypical language characteristics in the group, emphasizing what are considered to be similarities between them and children with other developmental language disorders (Tager-Flusberg, 2006).