A follow-up study of high-functioning autistic children.
Even the ‘high-functioning’ kids mostly face rough adult years, yet strong early puzzle skills hint at the few who thrive.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tracked 16 high-functioning autistic children for 15 years.
They looked at jobs, friendships, and mental health in adulthood.
Kids first tested around age 6; final check near age 22.
What they found
Only 4 out of 16 adults lived what the authors called a ‘very good’ life.
Most still struggled to keep jobs or friends.
Early puzzle-solving scores, not autism severity, best told who would do well.
How this fits with other research
Giserman-Kiss et al. (2020) shows toddler diagnoses stick 88 % of the time, matching the low recovery seen here.
Fujiura et al. (2018) finds daily-living skills stop growing in the teen years; that stall helps explain the poor adult outcomes P et al. saw.
Gandhi et al. (2022) adds that autistic adults lose hippocampus volume faster, giving a brain reason for the memory and work problems P et al. reported.
Why it matters
You can’t promise parents a cure, but you can point to strong non-verbal problem-solving as a bright flag.
Keep teaching adaptive skills right through high school; the plateau T et al. found is not fate.
And watch for early memory slips in your 30- and young learners clients—A et al. shows they may need extra support sooner than peers.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
It is well known that IQ is an important prognostic variable in the outcome of autistic children. There are, however, very few data available on the outcome of nonretarded autistic children as adults. We identified 16 such probands from records and followed them up between 11 and 27 years since discharge from a center specializing in the assessment of autistic children. There were 12 males and 4 females, average age was 26, and mean IQ was 92 (range 68-110). Although the majority were functioning poorly in terms of occupational-social outcome and psychiatric symptoms, a surprising number (4) had a very good outcome and might be considered recovered. The severity of early autistic behavior was a poor predictor of outcome, but neuropsychologic measures of nonverbal problem solving were highly correlated with outcomes. The results of the study indicate that a small percentage of nonretarded autistic children can be expected to recover to a substantial degree.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1989 · doi:10.1007/BF02211842