Nonverbal autism

Autism is characterized by the early onset of impairments in reciprocal social interaction and communication and restricted repetitive behaviors or interests. One of the many hypotheses explaining the psychopathology of autism, the deficit in joint attention hypothesis is prominent in explaining the disorder's social and communicative deficits. Nonverbal autism is a subset of autism spectrum where the person does not learn how to speak. One study has shown that 64% of autistic children who are nonverbal at age 5, are still nonverbal 10 years later.