Combined vitamin E and omega 3 therapy may help a type of verbal apraxia (speech problems) that may be caused by food allergies and nutritional problems, and could affect children with autism.

Children with verbal apraxia have trouble saying words and may have severe speech problems. Many scientists have thought that verbal apraxia is a brain disorder. This study suggests that verbal apraxia may be a result of nutritional problems. This study tested 187 children with verbal apraxia. Many of the children also had autism. All children took 400-3,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin E daily. They also took 1-3 grams of polyunsaturated fats (including omega 3 fatty acids) per day. Almost all of the families reported that the children who received vitamin E and omega 3 therapy had better speech, imitation, coordination, and eye contact. The authors also described blood test results for 26 of the children. They reported low carnitine levels, high anti-gluten antibodies, low vitamin D levels, fat absorption problems, and other results. The authors described how nutrition and metabolism might be different in some children with autism. The authors said that two major problems with this study were that they asked parents to give their own opinion of whether or not the children were getting better, and they did not use placebo controls. Even so, they said the results are very promising.