Fig. 3

Probabilities of having achieved “fluent speech’’ status by age. Probabilities were derived from a logistic regression, according to a history of early language regression (ELR) and the presence or not of an intellectual disability (ID), with the 95% IC. a The probability of being a fluent speaker in non-intellectually disabled participants does not differ between the No-ELR group and that with ELR after their first phrases (ELR-P). Autistic children with a history of ELR after their first words (ELR-W) show delayed development of fluent speech, but still have the same language prognosis at the age of 18. b Intelligence explained the fluent speech status considerably more than a history of ELR. Almost all autistic children without intellectual disability (with a non-verbal intellectual quotient ≥ 70) will have achieved fluent speech before the age of 18, whether they have had a history of ELR or not