Improvement in cognitive and language skills from preschool to adolescence in autism.
Autistic kids often stall by age 14—watch play, joint attention, and requesting before age 3 to spot who needs more help.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sigman et al. (2005) tracked 41 autistic kids from preschool to age 14. They tested IQ and language every few years. The team scored early play, joint attention, and requesting at age 3.
The study is a case series. It shows real-life growth paths, not lab tricks.
What they found
Most kids gained skills early, then hit a wall. By adolescence, half lost ground in IQ and language. Only early play, joint attention, and requesting predicted who kept growing.
If a child scored low on all three early skills, language rarely caught up later.
How this fits with other research
Durkin et al. (2012) extends the bad news. Teens with language impairment plus autistic traits have worse jobs and friendships than teens with language impairment alone. Language level did not predict life success; autistic features did.
Bradshaw et al. (2017) offers hope. Parent-mediated PRT for toddlers boosts expressive language and social motivation. Starting before age 3 can bend the curve Marian saw.
Vyshedskiy et al. (2025) shortens the window even more. After 2.5 years, learning rate drops fast. The three papers together say: start early, target social engagement, and keep parents in the loop.
Why it matters
If you wait until school age, you may miss the growth window. Screen play, joint attention, and requesting before age 3. Coach parents in PRT or similar models right away. Track these skills every six months; plateau signs mean intensify, not fade.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper reports on the developmental progression of a sample of 48 adolescents and young adults with autism who were previously assessed at preschool age and again in the mid-school period. In contrast to the earlier period when about one-third of the children made dramatic gains, cognitive and language skills tended to remain stable or decline over this time span. The gain in mental and language age of the non-retarded adolescents with autism was less than half the change in their chronological age. The mentally retarded adolescents with autism showed some gain in mental age over time but this was far less than their change in chronological age, and they showed almost no gain in language age. Early childhood predictors of language skills in adolescence were functional play skills, responsiveness to others' bids for joint attention, and the frequency of requesting behaviors.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2005 · doi:10.1007/s10803-004-1027-5