Can a Toddler Outgrow Autism?? The New Study you Can't Miss....

Dr. Mary Barbera discusses a new autism study, can a toddler outgrow autism?

Dr. Mary Barbera discusses the latest research suggesting that 40% of diagnosed toddlers may no longer meet autism criteria by ages five to seven. Explore the controversies, delve into the impact of adaptive skills, and understand the crucial role of early intervention in autism outcomes. This podcast navigates the complexities of autism recovery, intervention nuances, and potential long-term effects.

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🧩 About Mary Barbera 👩‍⚕️

I'm Dr. Mary Barbera and I fell into the autism world more than two decades ago when my first-born son, Lucas, was diagnosed with autism. Since then, I became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Host of the Turn Autism Around podcast (with more than 1 million downloads), and best-selling author of two books (including my newest book Turn Autism Around: An Action Guide for Parents of Young Children with Early Signs of Autism).

In addition to free content, I post daily across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I also offer two online courses for parents and professionals: The Toddler/Preschooler course to help young children ages 1-5 showing signs of autism (with or without a diagnosis) and the Verbal Behavior Bundle course to help kids over the age of 6!

Behavior Analyst BACB CEUs and Early Intervention contact hours are also included for professionals.

Whether you have a toddler showing signs of autism or you're a parent or professional helping an autistic child, I encourage you to subscribe to the Turn Autism Around YT channel and join me for videos almost every day that will help you increase talking, decrease tantrums, and improve eating, sleeping, and potty training!

#ASD

[saturnprincess]

This was super helpful and enlightening, Dr. Barbera. I have been fascinated by optimal outcomes studies for a while. Hadn't heard of this one. It's interesting though about the adaptive skills since the initial diagnosis was generally at such a young age (18 months to 36 months). What adaptive skills would a 2 year old be expected to have, for example? My son was diagnosed at 22 months and is now 5. Still on the spectrum for sure, still stims, still has processing delay, sensory sensitivities, odd interests, etc., but has made improvements in many domains--more social, can free write letters, fewer meltdowns, etc. Got ABA, speech, OT, special preschool, now in a small ICT class.

[emilymorris]

If they loose their diagnosis they were misdiagnosed. I think this creates a dangerous slope. I worry how this will impact autistic adults when society perceives them as having out grown autism.

[RobloxZenVibes]

My daughter was diagnosed moderate level of autism when she was 19 month old. She wouldn't reponse to her name or make eye contact and many more symptoms. After ABA therapy, and biomedical treatment for 1 year, she was surprisingly catching things pretty fast. Now she is 6 year old and her specialist said she doesn't identify as autistic anymore. She is verbal, eye contacts are very natural, goes to school and she loves all her friends. But she still struggles to explain anything and she is very behind in academic area as well. She would only do what she wants to do mostly. I feel stuck at this point. Not sure how to help her to get better at talking and how to encourage her to learn a little more.

[clairemichel]

That’s why I don’t think we should be diagnosing children so early

[jorgelambert]

My grandson is 2 and not yet diagnosed but I’m seeing him do so many things that make me wonder if he is outgrowing his autism. I was the one who had to talk to my son about what I was seeing in him in order for him to get him into speech therapy. I’ve never been in denial.

[AlM-tzyx]

Thank you for making your videos. I'm watching for my grandson. It may be a guy thing. I'd love if you can get to the point quicker. While trying to learn a new subject, it helps to have the info laid out quickly and to the point. Thank you again for what you are doing.

[anneteller]

Thank you for all the information you are getting out to the public. It is greatly needed. I only have one request. Can you let those of us just the beginning this journey know the full name for the acronyms/initials the first time you use them in the video and then you can use the initials after that first time? PDNOS? For those of us just beginning this journey, it will help. The names of the tools used in diagnosis, ADOS? ADI? BAILY 3? and VIOLENT? I don't know if I even got the initials correct. This is what it sounded like when you said them. If you can say the name for each initial slowly and distinctly the first time you use it, that would be great.

Every professional career choice has its own lingo/initials and that's OK. It's a type of shorthand in everyday conversation with people you work with or other professionals in the field. Just try having lunch with a group of computer scientists who work together and are writing or repairing computer code. They literally speak in acronyms/initials with actual words sprinkled in sparingly here and there. You will be lost in the conversation, I guarantee it. Remember people can enter any of your videos at any point in their journey and may not know the lingo or acronyms/initials yet.

[jeanguerrero]

ASD is an spectrum. It could be mild to severe, level 1-3. However, ASD is diagnose base on behavior that’s why it’s usually “identifiable and concrete” to diagnose toddler at the age of 3. Early intervention is the key to manage symptoms. If the behavior is not severe, or not noticeable, they can remove the diagnosis of ASD. Therefore, that could be on the mild side of ASD. It’s hard to outgrow ASD if you’re in the moderate to severe side of the spectrum. Some ASD has mental retardation manifestation, but MR is not being use now as a diagnosis for payment reason

[marinalief]

Thank you for your explanation, always very clear. My son is 6 years old and autistic. He can pronounce words beautifully, but he refuses to speak. He has never answered in words. But these days, I let him answer by typing. He doesn't want to type either, but I push him and then it works, but not always.
He is very good at arithmetic such as 199x9 - 700+90. Also when I ask him we need 20 bananas and we have 9 at home. How many bananas do we still have to buy? Then he types 11 but he types it with a lot of pushing. He can also translate sentences from Dutch to English and vice versa. Like today I went to school, tomorrow I'm going out with my parents. And he spells it without mistakes. Is he cognitively intelligent?

[robertolson]

Its when one part of the brain is not developed as much as the other. So the brain rewrites its self to survive. The brain needs to be equally developed before the child starts using diffrent parts of the brain for diffrent things or the child brain will be written is self wrong. Mixed signals all over the place. Its something mri should find after a few month old. So MRI scans should be required. The under developed parts stimulated to grow equaly with implats or other.