Therapy for infants showing early signs of autism

Published March 2021

Significant work is being done to lower the age of autism diagnosis, and therefore achieve better outcomes for children.

This full scale clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of a pre-emptive therapy for young infants showing early signs of autism in a real-world health-care referral setting. The therapy aimed to support infants and caregivers through a low-intensity, non-stigmatising, home-based program, when first signs are identified, rather than waiting for children to reach an age when an autism diagnosis might be given.

The study found that while there were no changes in some measures, parents who received the intervention reported that their toddlers improved in understanding an average of 37 more words and spoke an average of 15 more words than the control group.