Language Regression, Communication Development, and Autism

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20231
In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Mandy Steiman, clinical psychologist at the Azrieli Centre for Autism Research (ACAR) at the McGill University Health center.
The focus of this podcast is on the JCPP paper ‘Predictors of language regression and its association with subsequent communication development in children with autism’ (doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13565)
As co-author of the paper, Mandy sets the scene by detailing what they looked at in this study and gives us a summary.
Mandy provides clarification, and a definition, as to what language regression looks like, before turning to the methodology used for the research.
Mandy then shares the key findings from the paper and elaborates on her findings that children with language regression walked earlier and spoke their first word nearly a year sooner than the children without regression, and that language regression may have decreased impact over time, and that regressive patterns are not associated with worse outcomes.
Mandy further discusses what the implications are of these findings for families, and those assessing children and young people for autism, plus emphasises the importance of not ignoring language regressions.