Dorothy V. M. Bishop|Andrew J. O. Whitehouse|Helen Watt|Elizabeth Line
Autism and diagnostic substitution: evidence from a study of adults with a history of developmental language disorder
University of Oxford|University of Oxford|University of Oxford|University of Oxford
rates diagnosis autism risen since 1980 raising question whether children previously diagnoses diagnosed autism applied contemporary diagnostic criteria autism adults history developmental language disorder discover whether diagnostic substitution taken place total 38 adults aged 1531y 31 males seven females participated studies developmental language disorder childhood given autism diagnostic observation schedulegeneric parents completed autism diagnostic interviewrevised relies largely symptoms present age 4 5 years diagnose autism eight individuals met criteria autism instruments four met criteria milder forms autistic spectrum disorder individuals autism identified pragmatic impairments childhood children would nowadays diagnosed unambiguously autistic disorder diagnosed developmental language disorder past finding implications understanding epidemiology autism