Abstract
Almost 25 years ago, a series of follow-up investigations provided the first information about what happened to autistic children as they entered adolescence and adulthood (DeMyer et al., 1973; Lockyer & Rutter, 1969, 1970; Lotter, 1974). These studies were important in indicating that language skills and intelligence were factors in predicting outcomes for autistic students and adults. For a number of reasons, it now seems time to take a serious second look at follow-up and outcome studies, particularly for high-functioning autistic individuals. Educational services have changed dramatically in the past 20 to 30 years. In the last 10 years, access to community living and supported employment has also become more widespread. In addition, while it seemed clear from the earlier studies that, compared to severely mentally handicapped autistic individuals, high-functioning children and adults were more likely to have some success academically and socially, so few high-functioning autistic people did well on social and academic measures that factors associated with good outcomes within this group were difficult to determine. The purpose of the present chapter is to provide a brief description of recent and earlier studies of high-functioning individuals across development and to discuss factors that predict later functioning.
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Lord, C., Venter, A. (1992). Outcome and Follow-Up Studies of High-Functioning Autistic Individuals. In: Schopler, E., Mesibov, G.B. (eds) High-Functioning Individuals with Autism. Current Issues in Autism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2456-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2456-8_10
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