Early intervention in autism spectrum disorder: Early is how early and Focus on interdisciplinary management of behavior in Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders

ICNC2024
Symposia: Current Concepts In Autism Spectrum Disorder

Early intervention in autism spectrum disorder: Early is how early and Focus on interdisciplinary management of behavior in Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders
Sheffali Gulati

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are symptomatic by as early as 2 years of age. They can be reliably diagnosed early by assessing the scores on standardized measures. Research shows that early diagnosis of and interventions for autism are more likely to have major long-term positive effects on symptoms and later skills. Early intervention programs including behavioral intervention, developmental intervention and cognitive and behavioral intervention have shown better outcomes in younger children as compared to older children. Greater gain hasn’t been observed in children initiated at 3 years as compared to older age. These studies generally compare children who are older than 4 or 5 years with those who are younger than 4 or 5 years. One study comparing children younger than 3 years with those older than 3 years did not find age differences in improvement, which may suggest that 4 years of age is young enough to lead to significant gains. A potentially complicating factor is that children tend to make intelligence quotient (IQ) gains regardless of intervention at the younger ages.

Other Lectures in this symposium
Advances in genetics of Autism in African populations: Evolving concepts
Motor disturbances in Autism: Current concepts