User:Jthuey/sandbox

It is estimated that 25 to 50% of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder never develop spoken language beyond a few words or utterances. Despite the growing field of research on ASD, there is not much information available pertaining to individuals with autism who never develop functional language; that, in fact, individuals with nonverbal autism are considered to be underrepresented in all of autism research. Because of the limited research of nonverbal autism, there are not many validated measurements appropriate for this population. While they may be appropriate for younger children, they lack the validity for grade-school aged children and adolescents. Often in autism research, individuals with nonverbal autism are sub-grouped with LFA, categorized by learning at most one word or having minimal verbal language.