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Editor's Notes

• #14: between 2 and 19 months of age. Of these children, 91 have an older sibling with autism. These ‘baby sibs’ are about 20 times as likely to receive an autism diagnosis as infants without a family history of autism. The other 25 infants were considered ‘low risk.’ During each visit, parents completed a 396-word vocabulary checklist, marking the words that their children understood and the words they produced. The parents and researchers also noted when each child began to walk. The researchers continued to visit the children at 18, 24 and 36 months of age. At the final visit, they assessed the children for autism and language delay. They diagnosed 15 of the baby sibs with autism and 26 with language delay. In the four months before they walked, the baby sibs without autism or language delay and the controls both learned the meaning of about 11 new words and spoke an average of 1 new word per month. After they walked, language development in both groups accelerated: They picked up meanings for about 30 new words and spoke 4 new words each month. Vocabulary gains were more modest in baby sibs with language delay. These children understood and produced relatively few words before they could walk — about six words and less than one word, respectively — and added fewer words per month after they took their first steps than low-risk children. But the baby sibs later diagnosed with autism showed few vocabulary gains with walking. In each month before they walked, they picked up the meaning of fewer than two new words and sometimes spoke less than one new word. After beginning to walk, they gained about seven new words per month, an increase that was not statistically significant. Their spoken vocabulary grew by slightly more than one word per month. The findings were published 23 October in Child Development. Children with autism may not seek out the kinds of social or other stimuli that support vocabulary development, Iverson says. They may either lack the motivation to do so or become discouraged because they find walking difficult. It’s also possible that walking and verbal ability are not causally linked, even in typical development, says Rhea Paul, professor of speech language pathology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, who was not involved in the research. Instead, the brain’s language circuits may not be well established in children with autism, regardless of whether they are walking, Paul says. “I just think it’s taking things a little too far to say that it’s walking that contributes to this spurt of vocabulary.”
• #16: between 2 and 19 months of age. Of these children, 91 have an older sibling with autism. These ‘baby sibs’ are about 20 times as likely to receive an autism diagnosis as infants without a family history of autism. The other 25 infants were considered ‘low risk.’ During each visit, parents completed a 396-word vocabulary checklist, marking the words that their children understood and the words they produced. The parents and researchers also noted when each child began to walk. The researchers continued to visit the children at 18, 24 and 36 months of age. At the final visit, they assessed the children for autism and language delay. They diagnosed 15 of the baby sibs with autism and 26 with language delay. In the four months before they walked, the baby sibs without autism or language delay and the controls both learned the meaning of about 11 new words and spoke an average of 1 new word per month. After they walked, language development in both groups accelerated: They picked up meanings for about 30 new words and spoke 4 new words each month. Vocabulary gains were more modest in baby sibs with language delay. These children understood and produced relatively few words before they could walk — about six words and less than one word, respectively — and added fewer words per month after they took their first steps than low-risk children. But the baby sibs later diagnosed with autism showed few vocabulary gains with walking. In each month before they walked, they picked up the meaning of fewer than two new words and sometimes spoke less than one new word. After beginning to walk, they gained about seven new words per month, an increase that was not statistically significant. Their spoken vocabulary grew by slightly more than one word per month. The findings were published 23 October in Child Development. Children with autism may not seek out the kinds of social or other stimuli that support vocabulary development, Iverson says. They may either lack the motivation to do so or become discouraged because they find walking difficult. It’s also possible that walking and verbal ability are not causally linked, even in typical development, says Rhea Paul, professor of speech language pathology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, who was not involved in the research. Instead, the brain’s language circuits may not be well established in children with autism, regardless of whether they are walking, Paul says. “I just think it’s taking things a little too far to say that it’s walking that contributes to this spurt of vocabulary.”
• #18: But the baby sibs later diagnosed with autism showed few vocabulary gains with walking. In each month before they walked, they picked up the meaning of fewer than two new words and sometimes spoke less than one new word. After beginning to walk, they gained about seven new words per month, an increase that was not statistically significant. Their spoken vocabulary grew by slightly more than one word per month. The findings were published 23 October in Child Development. Children with autism may not seek out the kinds of social or other stimuli that support vocabulary development, Iverson says. They may either lack the motivation to do so or become discouraged because they find walking difficult.
• #19: Mac Donald