Language development of two to five year old children with autism and a normal intelligence

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder of course have problems with communication. In children with a normal intelligence the language development may be just slightly disturbed. Especially in younger children with ASD and a normal intelligence there hasn't been a lot of publications concerning their language development.

Objectives: To investigate the language development in Flemish 2 to 5 year old children with autism and a normal intelligence.

Methods: We investigated the language development of 60 two tot five year old children with ASD and a normal intelligence, using two standardised tests for language development (R-TOS and Nijmeegse Pragmatiek Test)

Results: (preliminary:) 2 to 5 year old children with autism and a normal intelligence have a general language development slightly below their developmental age, especially the spontaneaous language and language contents score lower, on the subtests on vocabulary the results are heighest.

Conclusions: (preliminary:) The investigation confirms the problems in language development and certainly in pragmatics.