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For those parents whose child is autistic, here's good news. In a recent study, it has been found that for some autistic children lost their symptoms with age . This research contradicts the popular belief that autism is permanent. While the findings of the study are certainly a ray of light at the end of a dark tunnel for many, further research is required on the topic.

For this research data on 112 children was taken, 34 of them were autistic, 34 other children in the same class and 44 children who had been diagnosed with less severe autism. It was observed by Dr. Deborah Fein and her colleagues at the University of Connecticut that 34 children who had autism since a very young age grew up to perform equally with 34 other children in the same class.

It was difficult to distinguish between the two groups of 34 children, each based on the cognitive and observational tests and parent as well as teachers' reports. Moreover, the most encouraging part was these children did not demonstrate any language problems or had difficulty in recognizing faces or interacting with society or communicating with others.

The scientists also studied another group of 44 children, who were of the same age, sex and had the same non-verbal IQ level and had been diagnosed with "high functioning autism," which meant their autism was of a less severe nature. Astonishingly enough, it was found that these high-functioning autistic children had more severe social deficit in the early years of their childhood than those 34 children whose autism symptoms were not recognizable.

"Although the diagnosis of autism is not usually lost over time, the findings suggest that there is a very wide range of possible outcomes. Subsequent reports from this study should tell us more about the nature of autism and the role of therapy and other factors in the long term outcome for these children," Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health was quoted in BBC News.

The research was done by the National Institutes of Health and the result published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.