Research: Variability in Outcome for Children with an ASD Diagnosis at Age 2

Many young children who are diagnosed with autism lose their diagnosis with time.

This study was designed to see what happens to children if they are diagnosed with autism at age 2. The authors found that about half of the children diagnosed with autism at age 2 lost that diagnosis at age 4. The authors use the terms stable diagnosis and unstable diagnosis. The authors state that while it may be possible that some of these children did not actually have autism, they do not think that this was the case. The authors urge anyone who is diagnosing a 2-year old with autism to tell parents that the diagnosis is not stable.