Autismus- Offener Zugang
Offener Zugang
ISSN: 2165-7890
ISSN: 2165-7890
Giacomo Vivanti, Barbara Manzi, Arianna Benvenuto, Barbara Battan and Paolo Curatolo
Background: Neurocognitive models of autism suggest that starting a treatment at a younger age might be a critical factor in promoting optimal outcomes. The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between age at start of treatment and outcomes in a group of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) in Italy.
Methods: Thirty-nine children between 22 and 77 months of age diagnosed with ASDs were divided into two groups on the basis of their age at start of a community-based behavioral treatment. Measures of severity of symptoms, cognitive abilities and adaptive functioning were collected at the beginning of the treatment (Time 1) and one year after (Time 2) to examine group differences in treatment outcomes. Our working hypothesis was that children who started the treatment at a younger age would show a more positive response to treatment compared to children who started at later age.
Results: Compared with children who received a diagnosis and started the treatment at a later age, children in the early treatment group showed a better outcome in terms of attenuation of symptoms severity. No group differences were found in terms of adaptive functioning and cognitive abilities, with both groups equally improving their performance.
Conclusions: Age at start of the treatment seems to be an important factor to promote gains in the social- communication domain. However, gains in adaptive functioning and cognitive skills in our sample were not related to age. The positive effect of a community-based intervention in children with an early diagnosis of ASDs might be due to the plasticity of neural systems in age-dependent stages. The possibility that early intervention could substantially alter the course of behavioral and brain development in children with autism points to the urgent need for more research on treatment in this population.