Early ID of Autism Critical

Recent work from the American Psychological Association (APA) highlights the critical need for early identification of autism spectrum disorders. Read the full piece here…basically, the growing emphasis on intensive intervention before age five further erodes the validity of the “wait and see” approach and lends urgency to specialized assessment as early as possible – for some high risk children, in the first year of life. 

The other critical piece here is the intriguing suggestion that with intensive early intervention it may, in some cases, be possible to move some children “off of the spectrum”. This idea is mixed with a lot of pseudo-science around “autism cures”, but for a sense of what a really good, credible researcher has to say about “optimal outcome” in autism check out this link to an interview with Dr. Deborah Fein at UConn, who is doing some REALLY fascinating work in this regard.