Autism spectrum disorder symptoms from ages 2 to 19 years: Implications for diagnosing adolescents and young adults.

ABSTRACT: This study explored change in social-communicative symptoms in 140 individuals with childhood autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses. Trajectories of caregiver-reported social-communicative symptoms were examined for three groups (verbal, delayed speech, minimally verbal) from ages 2 to 19 years. Groups showed comparable levels of social-communicative impairment at 2 years and significant decreases in overall symptom levels across the 17-year period (P < .001). Across three subdomains, main effects of time and language (P < .001) reflected patterns of overall improvement, although children with more impaired language tended to have more caregiver-reported symptoms relative to verbal peers. A significant time-by-language interaction (P < .001) reflected that trajectories of socioemotional

SUBMITTER: Bal VH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6600818 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature