Early communication development in socially deprived children — similar to autism?

Social deprivation leads to various neuroanatomical, neuropsychological and behavioral disturbances in humans as well as in experimental animals. Shared characteristics of socially deprived subjects and subjects with autism have been documented. The aim of this study was to analyze early development of communication in institutionalized (INST) children (12–24 months) in comparison with age- and sexmatched group of typically developing (TD) children and a group of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Our findings show that both socially deprived (INST) children and ASD children display delayed pattern of development in social, speech and symbolic domains. However, although INST children display significant developmental delay and share some features with ASD children, they have a qualitatively different developmental pattern of social communication in comparison to children with ASD. The results of this study indicate that growing up in an institution and lack of social and environmental stimuli influences development of skills that are fundamental for early speech and language development.