Study: Social Skills in Children with Autism Improve with Time

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A clinical child psychologist has found that many autistic children gain more verbal and social skills over time.
Catherine Lord, who is the head of the University of Michigan’s Autism and Communication Disorder Center, said that while some previous studies stated 50 percent of 9-year-old children with autism were mostly nonverbal, her study found that 14 percent were nonverbal. Lord presented the findings of her study Monday night at a lecture at MU.