ADAM FEINSTEIN, Editor of LOOKING UP, spoke to Professor PAT HOWLIN (extract)

ADAM FEINSTEIN:   You talked in your speech here in Cardiff about the outcomes in adulthood for autistic children. What about the outcomes for those children who, like my son, began developing language and then lost their speech and other skills. Are there any studies in this area?

Professor PAT HOWLIN:  There are a few studies, but the results tend to be somewhat equivocal. Some children never regain language, some children do regain it after a gap and continue to make progress, other children regain some limited language but always seem to be rather slow in that area of development. It is very difficult to predict which of the children are going to regain language or carry on developing linguistically well. All one can say is that it is a very common phenomenon. It has been noted since the earliest years when autism was described. It is not a new phenomenon, not related to the MMR vaccine or anything like that ...

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