Autism in tuberous sclerosis complex.

Doctors looked at kids who have tuberous sclerosis. They wanted to know how many also have autism.

They checked each child’s records. They noted who had seizures as babies and who had low IQ scores.

Four out of ten kids with tuberous sclerosis also met criteria for autism.

The autistic group was more likely to have had infantile spasms and mental retardation.

Their close relatives showed higher rates of social phobia and substance abuse.

Hatton et al. (2004) later proved autism can be spotted reliably by age two. The 1998 paper set the stage by saying every TSC child deserves that early look.

Capio et al. (2013) pushed the timeline even earlier, showing fussy, hard-to-soothe babies in high-risk families often go on to an autism diagnosis. Together the three papers form a ladder: screen TSC early, watch infant temperament, confirm by age two.

Norrelgen et al. (2015) used the same case-series method in general preschoolers and found one quarter still lacked phrase speech after two years. Both studies flag cognitive level as the key divider inside autism, strengthening the call to assess IQ along with language.

If a client has tuberous sclerosis, schedule an autism screen now, even if the child looks social. Track any history of infantile spasms and current IQ. These two markers tell you which kids need intensive ABA and which may need medical follow-up before behavior work can progress.