The researchers hope that their findings will lead to a better understanding of infant behaviour and reduce some of the frustrations of parenthood.Design Pics/Getty Images
A new U.S. study has found that infants treated for symptoms of autism spectrum disorder showed no symptoms or signs of developmental delay by they time they reached age 3.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California Davis MIND Institute, reinforces the importance of early detection and intervention, and highlights the role parents can take in their child's treatment.
In a pilot project using a therapy method, called Infant Start, the parents of seven symptomatic infants, aged 7 months to 15 months, were taught techniques to target their child's individual language and social needs through their daily routines. Over 12 weekly clinic sessions, parents practised and received coaching on activities, like dressing, changing and playing, to boost the infants' attention and engagement. For children who showed a lack of age-appropriate speech development, for instance, parents were shown how to use imitation and other strategies to increase their vocalizations and shape specific sounds.
The results, published online in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, were stark.
"Most of the children in the study, six out of seven, caught up in all of their learning skills and their language by the time they were 2 to 3," Sally Rogers, the lead author of the study, said in a press release. She added: "Most children with ASD [autism spectrum disorder] are barely even getting diagnosed by then."
Rogers noted that parents were instrumental in producing the results seen in the study. "Parents are there every day with their babies. It's the little moments of diapering, feeding, playing on the floor, going for a walk, being on a swing, that are the critical learning moments for babies. Those moments are what parents can capitalize on in a way that nobody else really can."
The results are promising, says Xudong Liu, assistant professor of psychiatry at Queen's University and co-director of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Canadian-American Research Consortium. But Liu, who was not part of the University of California Davis research, wonders whether they can be replicated on a large scale and at different institutes.
The authors of the study themselves caution that since theirs was not a randomized trial, they cannot make any conclusions about the efficacy of the treatment.
Liu notes that early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is a challenge. Although some infants may show symptoms as young as a few months old, others don't exhibit signs until much later. For instance, delays in language development may not become apparent until after age 1, he says. And as Lee Marshall previously reported in The Globe, wait lists for treatment can be as long as four years in some provinces.
"Everybody knows that the sooner the treatment we give to children, the better the outcome will be," Liu says. "But the biggest challenge is how to diagnose those children."
Wency Leung