Groundbreaking WA Study Shows Early Intervention Therapy Can Dramatically Reduce Childhood Autism Diagnosis

Early intervention with infants at risk for autism through parent-directed therapy improves a child’s social development so much that they are two-thirds less likely to meet clinical criteria for a diagnosis autism, according to the world’s first research from Telethon Kids. Institute.

The groundbreaking study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first time that a preventive intervention with children as young as one or two has been shown to significantly reduce autism-related behaviors.

The Autism Awareness advocacy group said research has signaled the need to completely rethink early childhood approaches to autism “to give our children a chance for the best outcome in life.”

“A little holy grail” for children’s health

The international research team, which included La Trobe University, the University of Western Australia and the University of Manchester, was led by Professor Andrew Whitehouse of the Telethon Kids Institute, who described the results as a real moment. decisive.

“It’s a bit of a holy grail in the area of ​​child health,” said Professor Whitehouse.

“What we have found is to provide a new clinical model, to identify children as early as possible in life, to provide a supportive intervention to help them be who they want to be, we can actually reduce the clinical criteria for autism by two-thirds.

“When we think about 53% of all children in NDIS have a diagnosis of autism, we begin to understand how important this finding could be.”

Typically, children are diagnosed with autism around age three, when therapy usually begins.

Professor Whitehouse said that meant nothing happened in the first two years after a child was born, when the brain was growing rapidly and therapies could have more of an effect.

Take the reverse approach

The researchers wanted to test if they could provide therapy in these early years to better support the child’s development and reduce the likelihood or intensity of disabilities.

They worked with the WA Child and Adolescent Health Service to identify children at risk for autism, whose siblings may be autistic or who show early behavioral signs of autism.

This was a four-year clinical trial with 89 infants aged 9 to 14 months. Over five months, half received the procedure and half did not.

Professor Whitehouse said most therapies or interventions for autism attempt to replace or shape developmental differences in children with more “typical” behaviors.

They took the opposite approach.

“What we wanted to do was identify each baby’s unique behaviors and use those strengths as a basis for future development,” Professor Whitehouse said.

They filmed parents and children playing and interacting, then gave them feedback on the unique way their child communicated, to help parents interact with their children.

They wanted to stimulate back-and-forth communication between parent and child as a building block for brain development.

“What we do is help give parents the secret to how their baby communicates with them through their body, through their face, through their vocal expressions and how they can communicate better to achieve those interactions. back and forth to build the brain, ”Professor Whitehouse said.

Children less likely to meet criteria for autism after therapy

“What we discovered at the age of three was that the babies who received our therapy had significantly reduced autism behaviors compared to a control group. And the therapy was so effective that it actually did. children who received the therapy were less likely to meet the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of autism.

“The children who received our therapy were two-thirds less likely to meet the criteria for autism. That’s a huge reduction.

Research has found that providing support very early in life could alter children’s developmental trajectories and potentially change the course of their lives.

“The tiny and subtle clues”

Perth’s wife Alianna Celisano has said it really is for her and her family.

She and her 18-month-old daughter Angelina participated in the study. Ms Celisano said her daughter was in a risk category because her eight-year-old son Michele was diagnosed with autism.

Over the course of 10 sessions of about 75 minutes each, a researcher observed and videotaped them as she and Angelina played with toys, read a book, or ate a meal.

The researcher would go through the images with her and discuss the interactions between mother and daughter up close.

“So because I could see that and then I was able to reflect on my own facial expressions and body language, I was able to adapt and optimize it, so every time I interacted with Angelina I I was like, “How am I expressing myself to her and how can I do it in a way that fosters her engagement and helps her develop even more? “”

Ms Celisano believed that participating in the study helped shape her daughter’s brain at a critical stage in her development.

“I think she’s grown up,” she said. “She loves people, she’s very, very social and she engages beautifully. And I have to say I think a lot of it depends on what we learned in the research study.”

“Radical change” possible from a limited amount of work

Autism Awareness CEO Nicole Rogerson said research has shown how beneficial this form of early intervention can be.

“What this research has shown is that a limited amount of very early work that could be done could have a dramatic change for these children and their end result,” she said.

“This research shows us that we have to look at early childhood in a whole different way. We can’t wait until children are three or four years old to see where they are in development.

If we see any warning signs at this 12 month old age, it is absolutely imperative that we start. And this research shows great results for these children.

“If we’ve helped their communication, if we’ve helped those social skills, if we’ve made them more likely to have an independent life and to be successful in school, then it’s up to us, we must be done. “

Parents are not to blame

Responding to concerns that without a diagnosis of autism, children would not get funding for services, the researchers said the study results underscored the importance of needs-based services rather than services. based on diagnosis.

They noted that funding through NDIS was already based on need and not on diagnosis.

They argued that by providing therapy based on each infant’s unique needs, rather than a general diagnosis, the study demonstrated significant developmental benefits.

The researchers pointed out that parent-child interactions were not the cause of autism and that parents were by no means to blame, but children were born with a developmental vulnerability linked to genetics.

“What we are saying is that parent-child interactions are a powerful tool through which we can support the brain development of developmentally vulnerable children,” said Professor Whitehouse.