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. 2016 Jun;46(6):2160-2173.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-016-2745-1.

Early Characteristics of Children with ASD Who Demonstrate Optimal Progress Between Age Two and Four

Emily Moulton  1 , Marianne Barton  2 , Diana L Robins  3   4 , Danielle N Abrams  5 , Deborah Fein  2
Affiliations

Early Characteristics of Children with ASD Who Demonstrate Optimal Progress Between Age Two and Four

Emily Moulton et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Although for many children, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disability, a subset of children with ASD lose their diagnosis and show typical cognitive and adaptive abilities. The ages at which this transition can occur is not known, but it sometimes occurs quite early. Participants in the current study were 207 children with an ASD at age two who were reevaluated at age four. Eighty-three percent retained an ASD diagnosis at reevaluation and 9 % showed "optimal progress": clear ASD at age two but not at age four, and average cognition, language, communication and social skills at age four. Early child-level factors predicted optimal progress: diagnosis of PDD-NOS, fewer repetitive behaviors, less severe symptomatology and stronger adaptive skills.

Keywords: ASD; Loss of diagnosis; Optimal outcome.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Deborah Fein, Marianne Barton and Diana L. Robins are co-owners of M-CHAT, LLC, which receives royalties from companies that incorporate the M-CHAT into commercial products. Data reported in the current paper is from the freely available paper version of the M-CHAT.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart indicating diagnostic results of Time 1 and Time 2 evaluations. 102 children who received Non-ASD diagnoses at their Time 1 evaluation, and 2 children who had missing information regarding diagnostic status at Time 2 were not included in the current analyses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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