Language regression is associated with faster early motor development in children with autism spectrum disorder.
Kids with ASD who walked early and later lost words need heavier early intervention than other kids with ASD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Manelis et al. (2020) asked parents when their young children with autism first sat, crawled, and walked.
They compared kids who later lost words with kids who kept their early words.
All children already had an ASD diagnosis; no new treatment was tested.
What they found
Children who later lost language had hit motor milestones sooner than peers who kept language.
The same early-motor group also showed more severe autism symptoms later on.
Early fast motors plus later language loss may flag a unique autism subgroup.
How this fits with other research
Heslop et al. (2007) saw the opposite pattern: non-regressed preschoolers gained language faster than regressors. The studies differ because P tracked language growth after age two, while Liora looked at motor timing before words vanished.
Tan et al. (2021) pooled 75 studies and found regression in about one of every three kids with ASD. Liora’s sample sits inside that big picture, giving motor detail to the 30% who regress.
Sharp et al. (2010) already showed regression-onset kids start life looking typical but end with worse symptoms. Liora adds a motor signature to that early “typical” window.
Why it matters
If a toddler with ASD walked early and words fade, plan for stronger support and closer tracking. Use motor timing as a cheap, quick red flag during intake. Adjust goals—these kids may need more intense language and social programming from the start.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one parent question: “When did your child first walk without help?” If answer is before 12 months and words are fading, bump language goals and increase hours.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Language regression (LR) is a consistent and reproducible phenomenon that is reported by ~25% of parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is controversy regarding the etiological and clinical significance of this phenomenon. Here, we examined data from a cohort of 218 children with ASD from the Negev Autism Center in Israel. We identified 36 children with ASD who were reported to exhibit clear LR by their parent on three independent occasions and compared them to 104 children whose parents did not report any concern of regression (NR). We compared a variety of key developmental characteristics across these two groups. We found that the age at which children with ASD in the LR group achieve key developmental milestones of crawling, walking, and use of first words is significantly younger than the age of children in the NR group, and comparable to the age of typically developing children. In contrast, no differences were observed in physical growth characteristics such as head circumference, weight, or height between the groups. Furthermore, almost all children with LR were born close to full term (>35 weeks) and none had a history of hypotonia. Notably, despite their apparently typical early development, children with LR were diagnosed with more severe symptoms of ASD than children with NR. These results strengthen the motivation to continue and study LR among children with ASD and suggest that early detection and intervention studies of ASD may benefit from stratifying children into LR and NR groups. Autism Res 2020, 13: 145-156. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: The presence of language regression (LR) among children with autism is still a matter of scientific debate. Here, we show that children with autism and reported LR start to crawl, talk, and walk at the same age as other typically developing children and significantly earlier than other children with autism. These findings, along with other medical differences between these groups, suggest that children who experienced LR comprise a distinct subgroup within the autism spectrum.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2197