Abstract

functioning autistic children and adolescents and 37 non-autistic children and adolescents, aged from 6 to 16 years old, attending various schools in Greece. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS)(Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984) was used in order to assess the adaptive behavior of the participants. The scores of the autistic children on the sub-domains and on the overall adaptive behavior were very low compared with the scores of non-autistic children. A statistically significant association was found between the variables of autistic children’s and adolescents’ overall adaptive behavior and chronological age; between the variables of communication, social skills, daily living skills and chronological age; and between the variables of overall adaptive behavior and the socioeconomic status of the family. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to a smoother school and social daptation of autistic children and to their long-term effective integration in the fabric of the society.