Some children with autism have latent social skills that can be tested.

Background: The idea of latent social skills in autism emerged as a possible interpretation of the rapid (but temporary) improvement of autistic subjects in oxytocin studies. We tested a hypothesis that a normal response to Item No 59 "Secure Base" from the third version of the Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised (ADIR-59) could indicate the presence of latent social skills in autism.

Methods: We examined 110 autistic children (88 boys and 22 girls) with a mean age of 6.0±2.5 years (range: 2.2-14.8 years) using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) - Generic. A diagnosis of mental retardation was established in 68 autistic children (62%).

Results: The difference in the ADOS social domain between children aged ≤5 years on one side and children older than 5 years on the other side was significant in subjects with normal responses to ADIR-59 (9.60 vs 6.47; =0.031) but not in those with abnormal responses to ADIR-59 (10.62 vs 9.63; =0.537). In a predictive model, lower ADOS social domain scores were predicted by older age (=0.001), lower scores on the ADIR-59 (=0.01), and the absence of mental retardation (=0.049).

Conclusion: The results support the hypothesis that the normal response to item ADIR-59 "Secure Base" indicates the presence of latent social skills in autism that might foretell further social growth in older autistic subjects.