Children with severe autism are more likely to struggle as adults with persistent challenging behaviours.
That’s the finding of a study by Professor Amaria Baghdadli, a French autism researcher. She specialises in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University Hospital of Montpellier.
Professor Amaria Baghdadli says targeted interventions that develop better communication are crucial for avoiding challenging behaviours in adulthood
Baghdadli led a team that monitored the development of 106 children with autism over 15 years.
She says the findings show the need to develop services for autistic adults in France who may have lacked suitable interventions when they were younger.
Educational methods ‘relevant in adults’
In an email, Baghdadli said that “relevant behavioural educational methods in children, such as TEACCH, ABA, or PECS, are also relevant in adults”.
The study looked at long-term outcomes for autistic children attending centres in French hospitals.
It followed the children from the age of five over the next 15 years.
Slow development for four out of five
The research found that four out of every five (80 per cent) saw only a very “slow growth” in adaptive behaviours between pre-school years and adulthood.
The remaining one in five (20 per cent) enjoyed faster growth. Of these, 5.4 per cent progressed so much they lost their diagnosis.
Those in the slow-growth group struggled with daily living skills, communication and socialisation.
Challenging behaviours linked to skills, symptoms, sleep and gut issues
As adults, challenging behaviours were linked to thinking and language skills, the severity of autism symptoms and co-occurring sleep disorders and gut problems.
The researchers also found poor language skills to be a “significant predictor” of self-harm. Baghdadli said this finding emphasises the “crucial role” of interventions that aim to develop better communication.
The researchers acknowledge there may be an over-representation of learning disabilities in the group because of French diagnostic practices in the mid-1990s, when the study started.
Back then children who were less severely impacted by autism tended not to be given a diagnosis.
The researchers published their work in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Related:
Autism traits ‘increase with age’
Published: 4 April 2019
