Did this person seem to lose words, daily living skills, motor abilities, or emotional or social skills that he/she previously had?

Questionnaire: Child with ASD
Date Last Updated: 1/20/09
Graph Current as of: 1/20/09

Why Is This Important?

Some children with ASDs seem to develop normally for a period of time before losing previously acquired social, language and other skills. Severe loss of skills between the ages of 2 to 4 after completely normal development may indicate a special type of ASD called “Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)."

Researchers want to find out how many children with ASDs experience such a regression, and to investigate if their disability after that point is any different than that of a child with an ASD who did not gain and then lose skills. Is there a milder “regressive” subtype of autism different from CDD?

Data from IAN Research:

Pie chart showing percentage of children with ASD whose development seemed to regress.

This chart shows that, at some point, 43 percent of affected children in IAN Research seemed to lose words, daily living skills, motor abilities, or emotional or social skills they had previously gained.