Early Intervention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

With the growing prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the necessity for discovering an effective course of treatment grows tremendously. ASD is a complex developmental disorder that affects social interaction, behavior, and communication of growing children. Early detection and intervention are key for children with ASD to obtain the best chance of normal development and a feasible, good prognosis. Today’s evidence for accurately diagnosing ASD before the age of three heightens the dire need of tailoring and discovering treatments for infants/toddlers around this age. 

In her talk regarding distinctive event-related potentials between children at a low-risk of ASD with those at a higher-risk, Maggie Guy stresses the importance of further research for attainable screenings tailored to infants. She and her colleagues found that certain signals, through Electroencephalography, respond more/less to certain stimuli (a familiar and novel face or toy). Screenings like these could accurately help doctors diagnose such an ambiguous disorder at an early stage of a patients’ life. Once the disorder has been diagnosed, intervention should begin immediately. 

To further focus on early intervention, a group of researchers turned to literature related to interventions for children under 36 months. All trials were performed through developmental and behavioral techniques as opposed to medications or biomedical therapies. For children under 3 years of age, developmental approaches were mostly used and involved parents more when compared to children of pre-school age (ages 3-5). While some approaches targeted specific areas of ASD deficits, others addressed multiple areas. These areas include, but are not limited to, social interaction along with language skills or emotional reciprocity. While cognitive and behavioral outcomes are important for children, social communication is a challenge (central to the disorder) that is difficult to overcome. Overall, it was found that the current best interventions include a mix of developmental and behavioral approaches which should begin as soon as a diagnosis has been reached. Another important factor is to involve the parents and family in the approaches used. Because parents/caregivers are in constant contact with the child, they could continue these therapies even outside of the allotted-intervention time. The prognosis for a child with invested parents could prove to be better than a child with little to no support system.

Study Regarding Intervention