Table 1 Participant Characteristics

Child 1 Child 2 Child 3
Chronological Age 5 years 5 years 6 months 5 years 4 months
Gender Male Male Male
K-CARS2-ST1) 34.5 42 43.0
PRES2) Receptive language score:5 years 4 months,expressive language score:5 years 4 months Receptive language score:4 years 8 months,expressive language score:4 years 7 months Receptive language score:4 years 10 months,expressive language score:4 years 8 months
K-CDI3) 5 years 3 months 4 years 5 months 4 years 10 months
Language and Cognitive Characteristics Has difficulty understanding situations, making inferences, and recognizing others’ emotions. Responds accurately when visual cues are provided, but has difficulty inferring causes, intentions, or likely outcomes from verbally presented situations. Has difficulty making associations, drawing inferences, and understanding context.
Capable of engaging in back-and-forth conversation with peers for about two turns. Able to ask questions to peers, but has difficulty listening to their answers and responding due to impulsivity. Able to ask questions to peers, but has difficulty listening to their answers and responding due to impulsivity.
Capable of mutual entailment and combinatorial entailment for coordination/comparison relations in RFT. Capable of mutual entailment and combinatorial entailment for coordination relations in RFT. Capable of mutual entailment and combinatorial entailment for coordination/comparison relations in RFT.
Capable of mutual entailment and combinatorial entailment for comparison relations in RFT. Capable of mutual entailment for comparison relations in RFT, but has difficulty with combinatorial entailment. Capable of mutual entailment and combinatorial entailment for comparison relations in RFT.
Behavioral Characteristics Responds with crying or screaming in unexpected situations. Shows high interest in peers but occasionally approaches excessively or disrupts their play. Demonstrates a strong avoidance response, refusing to participate in new situations, with new people, or during new tasks.
Frequently engages in solitary play rather than playing with peers during playtime. Exhibits difficulty with emotional regulation when restricted, leading to impulsive actions such as hitting or touching. Consistently plays alone; when playing with peers, screams and abruptly stops the game if rules change or when anticipating a loss.
Korean Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition, Standard Version (K-CARS2-ST; Lee, Yoon, & Shin, 2019)
Preschool Receptive-Expressive Language Scale (PRES; Kim et al., 2003)
Korean Child Development Inventory (K-CDI; Kim & Shin, 2006)