Ear infections in autistic and normal children.
Autistic kids rack up more ear infections and start younger, so ear checks belong in every FBA.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors compared ear infection records for 40 autistic kids and 40 typical kids. All kids were matched by age and sex.
They counted how many infections each child had and noted the age when the first one hit.
What they found
Autistic children had almost twice as many ear infections as their peers. The lower-functioning autistic group got their first infection about one year earlier.
How this fits with other research
Tyagi et al. (2019) also compared autistic and typical kids, but looked at sleep problems instead of ear trouble. Both studies show autistic bodies carry extra medical load.
Adams et al. (2020) and Adams et al. (2025) tracked anxiety, not infections. Yet the pattern is the same: the kids with more early risk (ear infections or anxiety) end up with tougher school paths.
Together the papers sketch a timeline: early medical issues → later behavior and learning problems.
Why it matters
When an autistic learner stalls or melts down, check ears first. Untreated infections can mimic or worsen "autistic behaviors" like hitting ears or ignoring speech. A quick pediatric visit may spare you weeks of pointless behavior plans.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The frequency of ear infections, ear tube drainage, and deafness was examined through parental reports in autistic and yoke-matched, normal children. For the autistic group these difficulties were additionally examined as a function of the children's cognitive and communication abilities, verbal versus nonverbal status, sex, and degree of autistic symptomatology. Autistic children had a greater incidence of ear infections than matched normal peers. Lower-functioning children had an earlier onset of ear infections than their higher-functioning autistic peers. Ear infections coexisted with low-set ears, and with a higher autistic symptomatology score. The findings are discussed in terms of greater CNS vulnerability in the autistic children, which is likely present since embryogenesis. The possible adverse consequences of intermittent hearing loss on language, cognitive, and socioaffective development are considered.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1987 · doi:10.1007/BF01486973