Purpose: To describe the clinical linguistic features of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 24 to 36 months.
Participants and methods: 47 children aged 24 to 36 months were diagnosed with ASD at the Psychiatric Department of Vietnam National Children’s Hospital between August 2018 and June 2019. Results: The mean age was 30.6 ± 3.3 months, the majority were male (80.9%), and most were diagnosed with severe autism (74.5%). The early signs of ASD generally involved communication-related symptoms, interaction (46.8%) and language (27.7%). Most of the children (97.9%) had language delay with the most common symptoms including making meaningless sounds (93.6%), not comprehending figurative/metaphor language (100%), and not understanding jokes (97.9%). Conclusion: Abnormalities in communication, interaction, and language are warning signs for early detection and intervention. The prominent language symptoms in the 24-to-36-month age group consist of language delay, immediate echolalia, making meaningless sounds, and no comprehension of figurative/metaphor language.