Some scientists say that children with autism may show signs of the disease when they are younger than a year old.
But some children with autism seem to develop normally in the first two years of life — making eye contact, waving goodbye, even saying a few words. Then, according to their parents and pediatricians, these children seem to abruptly lose those skills.
This ‘autistic regression’, reported in about one-third of children with the disorder, is baffling researchers.
“We haven’t found any biological markers to say why this child regressed and another didn’t,” says pediatrician Michael Davidovitch, chairman of the Israeli Association of Child Development and Rehabilitation. “And we don’t know if their prognosis will be better or worse.”
About 20 years ago, researchers began asking whether autistic regression could be a distinct subgroup of autism, with its own telltale biological markers. Since then, dozens of contradictory behavioral, physiological and genetic studies have left the field no closer to finding the answer.
…read the rest of my latest article at the Simons Foundation website.
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