The study also outlines a significant difference between boys and girls of high intelligence, and how this correlates with autistic disorders.
A large study of children aged 8 found that in terms of social communication difficulties there was a smooth distribution from those with no impairments through to those most severely affected. If autism is a distinct condition, caused by distinct underlying processes, such a distribution would be less likely.
The study used the ALSPAC cohort and diagnosed the degree of impairment through a questionnaire developed by the UCL Institute of Child Health. The study has just appeared in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
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