Hello, Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop at a different rate and don t necessarily develop skills in the same order as typically developing children. Autism is a neurologically based developmental disorder; onset occurs before the child reaches the age of 36 months and is characterized by delayed and deviant language development, failure to develop the ability to relate to others and ritualistic and compulsive behaviors including stereotyped repetitive motor activity. A variety of speech abnormalities have been described, such as echolalia and pronoun reversal. The speech of some autistic children has an atonic quality. Autistic children, in general, fail to make eye contact, smile socially,respond to being hugged or use gestures to communicate. There is no one treatment that works for every child with a developmental delay and autism. The management of a child with autism should be individualized. The health care team might include the physician, a speech-language pathologist, an audiologist, a psychologist, an occupational therapist and a social worker. The physician should provide the team with information about the cause of the speech delay and be responsible for any medical treatment that is available to correct or minimize the handicap. Interventions may include: Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Behavior Therapies (In autistic children, gains in speech acquisition have been reported with behavior therapy that includes operant conditioning). Parents and caregivers should be made aware of the need to adjust their speech to the level of the particular child. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Take care Regards, Dr AJEET SINGH, General & Family Physician