Sensitive subject as we cannot ignore the many parents who are sure that their child, who has been diagnosed with autism, lost skills suddenly and at all at once. Maybe there is a subset of children with autism who regress more rapidly, maybe there is a subset of children diagnosed with autism who has a similarly presenting disorder instead? With the difficulty in understanding autism (I recently posted a Rubik cube and that is now my puzzle piece), who can blame / be blamed?
This workshop report brings some light... not really; brings some discussion to light. It has been a while since I came across new discussion on this matter, so I was happy to read. Just information.
More on the rubik-cube all about autism.
I highlight:
The participants concluded that regression is not a distinct classification within the autism spectrum because the majority of children with the disorder show a decline in skills starting as early as 12 months of age, with some having more severe regression than others. All daily skills, such as the ability to grasp items or to follow a caregiver’s gaze, have a developmental trajectory, and autism symptoms may not be apparent until the trajectory is considerably off-course. For example, a skill such as speaking does not typically emerge until the second year of life, but it relies on all of the information acquired during the first year. If language development is impaired during the first year, a child’s difficulties may not be apparent until the age at which he or she is expected to talk. What presents as a dramatic decline in behavior may actually be a reflection of accumulating abnormal neurobiological functioning, rather than a sudden change.
The participants also agreed to consider regression in autism as distinct from childhood disintegrative disorder, which is an autism spectrum disorder characterized by a very severe and rapid loss of skills after 2 years of age.
Another important question related to regression is whether there are neural biomarkers that precede the behavioral symptoms in autism, and if these biomarkers can provide insight into whether there is a regression subtype in autism.
The workshop participants concluded that brain changes likely occur before behavioral symptoms of the disorder emerge, and that these alterations should be considered along a continuum. Some children with autism may have a more severe deficit on this continuum, which may translate into what many call regression.
Research also suggests that home videos can provide important insight into the development of a child before they have received a diagnosis of autism. Using these videos or following at-risk children in the laboratory is more reliable than parent interviews, research shows, because parents do not always accurately recall changes in their children’s abilities over time.
