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Purpose: To investigate the relationship between language regression and the subsequent social-communicative development of preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)., Methods: Thirty children with ASD participated in the study and were divided into two groups: with (n=6) and without (n=24) language regression. Language regression was assessed by the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and the social-communicative development was measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule., Results: Of the 30 children who met the criteria for participation in this study, six (20%) had regression of oral language skills, with a mean age of onset of 25 months. There were no statistical significant differences in the social-communicative development between the groups with and without language regression., Conclusion: The findings of this research do not seem to confirm the relationship between the occurrence of language regression and the subsequent impairment on social-communicative development of children with ASD.

Background: oral language disorder and epilepsy in childhood., Aim: to verify the occurrence of oral language disorders in epileptic preschoolers attended at the Child Neurology Section of a university hospital., Method: a prospective study with 30 epileptic children who were submitted to an oral speech-language evaluation., Inclusion Criteria: explicit diagnosis of epilepsy according to the ILAE (2005); ages between 3 to 6 years; normal neurological standard and neuropsychomotor development., Exclusion Criteria: dubious diagnosis of epilepsy; altered neurological standard and neuropsychomotor development; children with associated pediatric disorders. Analyzed variables were: gender, age of first seizure, types of seizure and treatment regime. OR (odds ration) was determined, with a significance level of < 0.05., Results: 18 (60%) children with epilepsy presented oral language disorders and 12 (40%) presented normal language development. Regarding the observed disorders, 12 (67%) presented language disorder and 6 (33%) presented phonological disorder. Male children (OR = 2.03) and those with partial seizure (OR = 2.41) demonstrated to have a higher risk for oral language disorders., Conclusion: the results indicate that preschoolers with epilepsy present a predominance of oral language development delay, and that the male gender and partial seizure are risk factors for this age group.