Nevertheless, if such an adjustment had been applied, nearly all of the current findings would still apply.5. ConclusionThe current study adds to the evidence that neurodevelopmental syndromes such as ADHD and ASD are associated with a considerable range of developmental and behavioral problems. It also extends prior research by demonstrating that adult ADHD and ASD patients are likely to have displayed more difficulties in childhood when compared to other psychiatric patients and that retrospective parent reports can assist in building a symptom history. The ESSENCE framework and instruments such as the FTF appear to be useful for identifying areas of difficulty that are not diagnostic of ADHD and/or ASD but are nevertheless important for understanding the complexity of patients’ needs. AcknowledgmentsThe financial supportwas provided through the regional agreement for support for research between Stockholm County Council (ALF) and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and S. Bejerot received Grants from the Swedish Research Council (no. 523-2011-3646).
Although there is substantial variation in the rate of language acquisition between developmentally normal individuals, most children acquire good verbal communication by the age of three years [1]. Not only is language delay among the most common developmental disorders (prevalence 1�C19% depending on definition [2]) but is also an ESSENCE disorder [3] commonly associated with negative long-term outcomes [4�C6]. These include social and behavioural problems, lack of school readiness [7], school exclusion [8], future academic problems [9], neuropsychiatric disorders [10], and poor employment [11]. A number of studies (e.g., [4, 12]) have supported the argument that early interventions can affect long-term outcomes, but there are many methodological weaknesses in trial design [13], and findings of trials based on community screening are inconsistent [13, 14]. There has thus been no international consensus to date on the wisdom of screening for language delay. There is no screening programme currently in the UK, largely because of the lack of historical evidence of effectiveness [15, 16]. The evidence base has, however, developed substantially in the past decade. Miniscalco et al. [17] evaluated a simple Swedish language screening instrument and found that it accurately identified language delay in 2.5-year-old children. Further, a cluster randomised trial of language screening for toddlers in The Netherlands concluded that screening can reduce the number of children who require special education and leads to improved language performance at age eight [18]: the authors recommended nationwide implementation of the screening instrument. Contrasting conclusions have emerged from recent work in Australia [14].