Speech and language deficits in children with autism may not cause tantrums
Children with autism experience more tantrums than children without, according to the researchers, and speech therapists, preschool teachers, parents and others often blame these frequent outbursts on speech and language problems. Some children with autism spectrum disorder are not able to speak or have speech that is not clear or well-understood by others. To investigate this correlation, the researchers studied the relationship between language and tantrum frequency in 240 children with autism between the ages of 15 and 71 months of age. The researchers, who published their results in a recent issue of the Journal of Development and Physical Disabilities , said that the children's IQ, their ability to understand language and their ability to use words and speak clearly, explained less than 3 percent of their tantrums. "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,...