Autism does not have a “cure”. However, research shows that that early intervention treatment services can greatly improve a child’s development. While early intervention is extremely important, intervention at any age can be helpful.

After the diagnosis, you may seek input of other professionals to support your child. Some things that you may find useful are:

Early intervention therapies for communication

• SPELL is The National Autistic Society’s framework for understanding and responding to the needs of children and adults with autism. It focuses on five principles that have been identified as vital elements of best practice in autism and emphasises ways to change the environment and approaches to meet the specific needs of each person.
• Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children (TEACCH) uses visual cues to teach skills. For example, picture cards that can help teach a child how to get dressed by breaking information down into small steps.
• The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) uses picture symbols to teach communication skills. The person is taught to use picture symbols to ask and answer questions and have a conversation.
• Speech Therapy helps to improve the person’s communication skills. Some people are able to learn verbal communication skills. For others, communication may be through gestures or picture boards.

Early interventions for behaviour

• Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a treatment approach for people which encourages positive behaviours and discourages negative behaviours in order to improve a variety of skills. The child’s progress is tracked and measured. There are different types of ABA. Following are some examples:
  • Discrete Trial Training (DTT) is a style of teaching that uses a series of trials to teach each step of a desired behaviour or response. Lessons are broken down into their simplest parts and positive reinforcement is used to reward correct answers and behaviours. Incorrect answers are ignored.
  • Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI) is a type of ABA for very young children with autism usually younger than five, and often younger than three.
  • Pivotal Response Training (PRT) aims to increase a child’s motivation to learn, monitor his own behaviour, and initiate communication with others. Positive changes in these behaviours should have widespread effects on other behaviours.
  • Verbal Behaviour Intervention (VBI) is a type of ABA that focuses on teaching verbal skills through a Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based approach (also called “Floortime”). Floortime focuses on emotional and relational development (feelings, relationships with caregivers). It also focuses on how the child deals with sights, sounds and smells.

• Social stories are a concept created by Carol Gray in 1991 to improve social skills of people with autism. Social stories can be used to teach appropriate social behaviour through praise and modelling of appropriate social interactions. Social stories describe a situation with relevant social cues, other’s perspectives and what responses a child can give. You can find out more about social stories as a concept from the Carol Gray website.
• PACT and PASS is an intervention that originated in Manchester which helps parents interact better with their autistic child. Universities of Manchester and Liverpool collaborated with organisations in Pakistan and India to adapt and test a parent-led autism therapy called PASS. A manual on PASS has been published by the Human Development Research Foundation in Pakistan and is available here.
• Counselling can be one way of helping with coping strategies, relaxation techniques and relationship issues. You can find out more about how the National Autistic Society says about counselling here.
• Social learning can help people develop social skills to understand themselves and others better, nurture relationships and understand their social world. To find out more including free articles and strategies see the social thinking website.

Early intervention for sensory needs

• Occupational therapy develops skills to help children and adults with autism be as functioning in different environments as possible. You can read more about OT and autism from Autism Speaks here
• Sensory integration therapy helps the person with autism improve their ability to process sensory information so they function better in their daily activities. You can read more about sensory issues from Autism Speaks here

Medical Treatment

There are no medications that can cure autism or treat the core symptoms. However, there are medications that can help some people with autism function better. For example, medication might help manage depression or seizures.

Medications might not affect all children in the same way. It is important to work with a health care professional who has experience in treating children with autism. Parents and health care professionals must closely monitor a child’s progress and reactions while he or she is taking medication to be sure that any negative side effects of the treatment do not outweigh the benefits.

It is also important to remember that children with autism can get sick or injured just like children without autism. Regular medical and dental exams should be part of a child’s treatment plan. Often it is hard to tell if a child’s behaviour is related to the autism or is caused by another health condition. Monitoring healthy development means not only paying attention to symptoms related to autism, but also to the child’s physical and mental health. Find out more here.

Dietary Approaches

Dietary treatments are based on the idea that food allergies or lack of vitamins and minerals cause symptoms of autism. Some parents feel that dietary changes make a difference in how their child acts or feels.  Children with autism may already have a restrictive diet or have certain food texture preferences. They may be higher risk for nutritional deficiencies if on a restrictive diet. Before making changes to your child’s diet or adding any supplement, talk to your child’s doctor or dietician first.

Warning: Fake treatments and cures

All parents want their children to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Unfortunately, as parents of children with autism work to help their children, they can fall victim to false claims that encourage them to try at best expensive and ineffective non-evidence-based treatments and at worst treatments that are harmful for the child.Unfortunately, fraud is a huge business, and parents of children with autism are often targeted.

Before beginning any treatment, parents should question the evidence and research behind it and evaluate associated risks and benefits. They can for example ask their healthcare practitioner whether the treatment has been proven effective and safe in objective scientific studies, and whether those studies have been published in well-established, peer-reviewed medical journals.

What makes for good evidence?

To be considered evidence-based, a treatment must be thoroughly investigated in multiple well-designed scientific studies and show measurable, sustained improvements in targeted areas. A study’s design largely depends on its focus and purpose, but there are some characteristics that well-designed studies tend to have.

These include but are not limited to:

• Use of well-matched comparison groups in the study. This means participants receiving the new intervention or therapy are  compared to a group of participants receiving a standard  intervention or no intervention. The comparison groups should be similar to or “match” the new treatment group for example in terms of average age, gender distribution or diagnosis.
• The random assignment of participants into treatment and comparison groups.
• Use of pre and post-test design which means that performance on a given test is measured before and after the intervention to measure change.
• Use of representative samples which means that participants should be representative of the wider population.
• ‘Blinding’ of individuals involved in the experiment  which means that both participants and researchers are not aware of how groups have been assigned to stop biases in the way data is collected or interpreted; and/or
• Use of sufficiently large samples based on past research and statistical analysis.

To learn more you may want to see information from organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence or the Cochrane Library.