The adaptive behavior ability of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is generally reduced. The relationship between adaptive behavior and early developmental levels of autistic children is unclear. Understanding the relationship between the two will be helpful for identifying general laws of adaptive behavior development in children with ASD and for promoting the implementation of early individualized interventions. We conducted a retrospective study of 1656 children diagnosed with ASD in the Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China, from January 2019 to March 2022. We summarized the results of the Normal Development of Social Skills from Infant to Junior High School Children Scale and the Gesell Developmental Schedules (GDS) and conducted statistical analysis on the data. We found thar age can affect the adaptive behavior and each domain of the GDS in children with ASD. Adaptive behavior also significantly affected the DQ of the GDS domains, as indicated by a positive correlation. The adaptive behavior and various abilities of children with ASD affect each other. It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the individual abilities of different autistic children and to adopt individualized comprehensive treatment models.