Delayed Language Onset as a Predictor of Clinical Symptoms in Pervasive Developmental Disorders

by Richard Eisenmajer, Margot Prior, Sue Leekham, Lorna Wing, Ben Ong, Judith Gould and Michael Welham. (1998) Jr. Autism and developmental Disorders, 28, 527-533.

“DSM-IV states that Asperger Disorder may be distinguished from Autistic Disorder by a lack of a delay in early language development. The aim of this study was to establish whether the presence or absence of early language delay would predict autistic symptomatology in children diagnosed with a PDD/autism spectrum disorder.”

“We found that early language delay predicts more autistic symptomatology when young, (less than six years) but not at an older age. Early language delay is also associated with developmental motor milestone delays and lower receptive language abilities. The results question the use of early language delay as a valid discriminating variable between PDD subgroups.” (p. 527)

“... normal language onset did not necessarily preclude later communication deviances.” “This study indicates that the variable may have more use when the children are under 6 years but little validity for older children.”

“The findings raise doubts over the use of early language delay as a differential criterion for Asperger Disorder and Autistic Disorder.” (p. 532).