Planum temporale volume in children and adolescents with autism.

The team measured the planum temporale in autistic youth. This is a language hot-spot on each side of the brain.

They used MRI scans to compare left and right side size in kids and teens with and without autism.

Typical children showed the usual pattern: left side bigger than right. Autistic children did not.

Their left planum temporale was smaller, so the normal left-greater-than-right shape was missing or flipped.

Blanchard et al. (1979) saw a similar flip in the back of the brain, hinting at wide asymmetry problems in autism.

Eklöf et al. (2019) push the timeline earlier. They found reduced asymmetry in newborn scans of extremely pre-term babies who later received an ASD diagnosis.

Haring et al. (1988) add a functional angle. They showed weaker left-side brain waves to speech sounds in autistic kids, lining up with the smaller left structure seen here.

If the left language area starts smaller, auditory and verbal skills may need extra support from day one. When you write goals, add ear-friendly tactics: slow speech, clear prosody, visual cues, and frequent comprehension checks. Track how the child responds; the brain can still build new routes.