Dear Ms Murez,
We are writing in response to your article, “Intervening in Infancy Might Help Prevent Some Cases of Autism: Study.” We value your efforts to highlight the importance of early intervention, including early parent-led intervention, for infants who are at risk for autism or developmental delay. In your article, you acknowledge that infants who start preemptive, parent-led intervention might have better outcomes in terms of social development and reduce the impact of disability longer-term. The researchers found that infants who received the preemptive intervention were less likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for autism than those who received less intensive community-based therapies. However, these effects were relatively small and, at this time, their longer-term clinical significance is uncertain. We were really pleased to read the balanced comments provided by Dr Victorian Chen, who noted that although the study had many strengths, more research of this type is needed with diverse cohorts of children and families before stronger conclusions about the effectiveness of this type of very early intervention can be reached.
At the Association for Science in Autism Treatment, our mission is to disseminate science-based information to parents and professionals about autism and its treatment. We believe that it is imperative for families to not only have information about interventions and supports that are evidence-based, but also have an understanding of recent research findings regarding new interventions so that they are able to make informed decisions about the treatments and supports they pursue for their children. On our website, we provide information to guide parents in making important decisions such as selecting treatments or treatment providers. We hope you will consider sharing this information with your readers!
Sincerely,
Mariya Mehmood, MPH
Erin Leif, PhD, BCBA-D
