Behavior Therapy Normalizes Brains of Autistic Children
Behavior Therapy Normalizes Brains of Autistic Children
Autism likely has deep genetic roots, but the latest research provides hope that some learning techniques can lessen symptoms of the developmental disorder.
In children with the mildest cases of autism, these techniques resulted in changes in their brains that made them “indistinguishable” from those of unaffected children of the same age — essentially normalizing them, according to Geraldine Dawson in the department of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The results, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, are validation for the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a behavioral intervention program that involves intensive engagement with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Specially trained counselors work with children twice a day in two-hour sessions, five days a week. In 2009, Dawson’s group reported on related work that showed that children with autism who received this intervention beginning at 18 months for about two years showed an average improvement in IQ scores of 17.6 points, and dramatic gains in adapting so-called normal developmental behaviors, such as brushing their teeth and engaging with family members during meals.