Autism prodrome 34 of 89
A growing body of research suggests different onset patterns for children with
ASDs with and without developmental regression (for a review see Ozonoff, Heung,
Byrd, Hansen, & Hertz-Picciotto, 2008). Furthermore, fixation or developmental
stagnation/plateau (Hansen et al., 2008; Siperstein & Volkmar, 2004) and/or
regression may appear following typical development or after a period of time in
which some risk markers (e.g., language delay) were already apparent. It appears that
developmental stagnation/plateau and/or regression in any developmental domain
associated with ASDs such as a loss in communication skills, social skills, motor,
play, self-help or in any other developmental domain may play a part in the prodrome
of some but not all children who later on develop ASDs.
When evident, it appears that regression may follow a year or two of typical
development or an earlier period of some other developmental concerns and
difficulties (De Giacomo & Fombonne, 1998; Fombonne & Chakrabarti, 2001;
Goldberg et al., 2003; Kurita, 1985; Lingam et al., 2003; Ozonoff et al., 2008;
Ozonoff et al., 2005; Richler et al., 2006). Goldberg et al. (2003) and Hansen et al.
(2008) report that the majority of children who experience regression show regression
in social and language abilities jointly or in social abilities only. A minority of
children reveal regression only in language abilities with non-significant differences
in the clinical picture among children with regression in language abilities versus
those with regression in other domains (Luyster et al., 2005). Ozonoff et al. (2008)
conclude their review by suggesting that the onset of ASDs may be marked by the
two extremes of development with no evidence of regression on one end of the
continuum and regression on the other end of the continuum, and intermediate
manifestations of stagnation/fixation and developmental difficulties and small losses
prior to the full blown clinical picture of ASDs. This conclusion once more