A certain kind of intervention can improve the way autistic children relate to their parents but does not reduce their symptoms of autism, according to a new study from Great Britain.

Prof. Jonathan Green and his colleagues at the University of Manchester worked with 152 children ages two to four years old and their parents. Parents and children participated in 18 sessions with therapists in which parents learned how to adapt their interactions to their children's impairments.

"On the basis of our findings, we cannot recommend the addition of this intervention to treatment for the purpose of reduction in autism symptoms," said Dr. Green. "The intervention significantly alters parent/child dyadic social communication in ways that are associated with positive child outcomes in longitudinal studies of autism, and likely to be positive for parents themselves."

The study appeared in the British medical journal Lancet.
 

Labels: autism

Posted By: Jane St. Clair