Expert: James Michael Roan - 10/13/2005

Question
My 7 yr old daughter was dx with autism at 2yrs. She has done phenominally well with treatment. She was speaking in full sentences learning to read do math. ABout 6 wks ago she had a fever (103.5) not unusual for her she runs high fevers. She was seen by and Doctor to rule out infection or Chrone's flareup. She only had a virus. The next day fever was gone but so was speech. She has gone through a complete regression. She was hospitalized for 4 days for neurological tests. So far all came back negative but no one has an answer. The neurologist now is saying that this could be a form of autism that will regress periodically for no reason. I don't buy it. If this is true please let me know. But my feeling is there is something going on that is not so easy to find. Her teacher is just as concerned as I am. Her teacher is an autism teacher and his mother has worked with autistics her whole career and has never seen this before. Please help with any info.

Answer
Hi Diana;

Your instincts are excellent. This situation is not common to autism. Children with autism can appear to regress in terms of small packets of learned academic skills: They know them on Friday and appear to not know them on Monday. This is usually due to the fact that their learning, i.e., retrieval skills are more context-dependant than it is for you and I.

There are two forms of autism: The first involves a clear progressive developmental delay from a very early age, and the second involves cases where children appear to develop normally until around age 2 1/2 to 3, then suddenly loose social and communication skills. Interestingly enough, the second scenario is usually related to an illness where a child is given antibiotics. I have encountered, personally, several of these conditions. Current theories surrounding the origins of autism have noted a high correlation between weak immune systems in children and the thinking is that these children, when exposed to an infection and/or an antibiotic, have a negative reaction in a way that causes them to loose skills.

Let me know if I can help any further.

Kind Regards,
James