Trajectories of Autism Symptom Severity Change During Early Childhood.
Einat Waizbard-Bartov, Emilio Ferrer, Gregory S Young and 5 others
PMID 32410098WHAT IT FOUND
Autism symptom severity changed during early childhood.
Most children stayed stable, some decreased, and some increased. Baseline severity did not predict direction, so watch for both improvement and worsening.
Key findings
01Most children (54.4%) remained stable in autism symptom severity over time, while 28.8% decreased and 16.8% increased.
02Children whose severity increased had lower baseline autism severity than children whose severity decreased or stayed stable.
03Girls were more likely than boys to decrease in severity (36.1% vs 25.8%) and less likely to increase (8.3% vs 20.2%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only baseline and follow-up assessments were used, so the study cannot describe later childhood trajectories. Severity change was based only on ADOS calibrated severity scores, not a broader set of outcome measures. Girls may have lower ADOS severity because they mask social-communication differences, not because their impairment is truly reduced. Children had to be English-speaking, ambulatory, and without severe sensory or chronic health limitations, so results may not apply to children with greater medical or communication needs. No treatment was assigned, so intervention history cannot be credited for symptom change.
Declared interests
The work was funded by NIH, the MIND Institute Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, the Simons Foundation, and an Autism Center of Excellence grant awarded by NICHD. The supplied text does not state author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that more intervention hours caused severity decrease. The study did not assign treatments, and intervention hours and intensity did not differ between severity-change groups.