Why Some Children with Severe Autism 'Bloom'

A small number of children with severe autism "bloom" over time and progress to a high-functioning state, and a new study may reveal part of the reason this happens.
In most cases, children with autism who show severe symptoms at diagnosis improve very little as they age, while those who are least impaired improve more rapidly in their social and communication skills, the study showed.
However, about 10 percent of autistic children are so-called bloomers, the researchers said, and the study showed that one factor that distinguished these children was higher socioeconomic status. Bloomers tended to have white mothers with more education.