A cluster analysis exploration of autism spectrum disorder subgroups in children without intellectual disability

Evidence of dissociated levels of severity across core ASD dimensions supports the idea that clinically meaningful subgroups within ASD without ID can be identified. The dissociated profiles of ASD features could represent different underlying neurobiological mechanisms for each subgroup. Identifying such subgroups in practice can improve the clinical utility of diagnostic labels in this population. Thus, both categorical and dimensional approaches may be useful in classifying ASD, with neither alone being adequate.