Language difficulties are not the cause of more frequent tantrums in children with autism, according to a new study.

Insight: Dr Cheryl D Tierney, whose research found language was not the main cause of tantrums in children with autism

Researchers, from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, say parents and teachers often blame language difficulties for causing tantrums.

But the researchers say communication problems explained less than 3 per cent of tantrums.

Other traits deserve study

Instead, they say two other common traits deserve further study.

One is mood dysregulation. This describes a persistently irritable or angry mood with frequent temper outbursts.

The other trait is a low tolerance for frustration. This describes an inability to tolerate unpleasant feelings or stressful situations.

The researchers based their work on a review of existing data.

They studied the relationship between language and tantrums in 240 children with autism. The children were aged between one and five.

Children with language difficulties had fewer tantrums

Children with a language age at or above two years old had more tantrums than children whose speech skills were below a two-year-old’s.

However, when the researchers factored in the child’s non-verbal mental age they found the difference in the frequency of outbursts was not significant.

One of the researchers was Dr Cheryl D Tierney, an associate professor of pediatrics at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine.

She said: “We had children in our sample with clear speech and enough intelligence to be able to communicate, and their tantrums were just as high in that group.”

But the research has several limitations. It used feedback from mothers to measure the number of outbursts and the intelligibility of the child’s speech, rather than assessment by researchers.

Also, the researchers based their findings on group data. They acknowledge that individual exceptions are possible.

They say tantrums are connected to the severity of a child’s autism and future research should investigate this link.

But even with these limitations the researchers say their results, and those of others, show poor language is not the main cause of tantrums in autism.

Publication of the paper took place in the Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities.

Published: 17 May 2017