Comparative study of developmental events in autistic children and normal children

Autism is a complicated developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life as a result of a neurological disorder affecting performance. The present study aimed at studying significant developmental events happening to autistic children compared to those occurring for normal ones. 50 autistic children and 50 normal children with an age range of 4 to 11 years participated in this descriptive-analytic study which was conducted in Isfahan-Iran. Important developmental factors related to pre-, peri- and post-natal periods were collected from literature and a tailor-made questionnaire was designed to be later completed by children's mothers. The data was statistically analyzed via Chi-Square, Fischer Exact and Mann-Whitney test. The results indicated that the factors which occurred significantly more frequently among children with autism were as follows: advanced maternal and paternal age, maternal stress, allergic signs during pregnancy, familial marriages, having a history of communication and/or speech-language disorders in the family, cesarean delivery, high fever after birth, seizures and head trauma (P < 0/05). Although this study cannot determine decisive causes of development of autism in children, it can introduce possible risk factors. In fact, our findings suggest that pre-natal, neonatal and post-natal factors contributing to deviant growth are important in the pathogenesis of the disorder.