September 20, 2021

A Preemptive Intervention for Developmental Outcomes in Infants Showing Early Signs of Autism

While most children are diagnosed with autism around 3 years of age, this new study aimed to look at children at an earlier stage of development, when the first signs of developmental differences may be observed, to see if interventions at this stage can have an impact on developmental outcomes later in childhood.

As part of a randomised clinical trial, parents with infants who were showing early signs of autism at 12 months undertook either a parent led intervention (iBASIS-Video Interaction for Promoting Positive Parenting (iBASIS-VIPP)) or had usual standard of care. Developmental outcomes were measured over the next 2 years and, at 3 years old, whether they met the ‘deficit-focused’ diagnostic criteria for autism.

The work is published in JAMA Pediatrics and two of the authors were able to go through the study’s findings and implications at this briefing.

Speakers included:

Professor Jonathan Green, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Manchester and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital

Professor Andrew Whitehouse, Angela Wright Bennett Professor of Autism Research at Telethon Kids and The University of Western Australia and Director of CliniKids

Dr James Cusack, CEO, Autistica

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of Comments.