How To Prevent Infants At Risk For Autism

How To Prevent Infants At Risk For Autism.
A remedy involving "video feedback" - where parents follow videos of their interactions with their newborn - might help prevent infants at risk for autism from developing the disorder, a new survey suggests. The research involved 54 families of babies who were at increased risk for autism because they had an older sibling with the condition. Some of the families were assigned to a psychoanalysis program in which a therapist employed video feedback to help parents understand and respond to their infant's individual communication style. The object of the therapy - delivered over five months while the infants were ages 7 to 10 months - was to ameliorate the infant's attention, communication, early language development, and communal engagement.

Other families were assigned to a control group that received no therapy. After five months, infants in the families in the video psychotherapy group showed improvements in attention, engagement and common behavior, according to the study published Jan 22, 2015 in The Lancet Psychiatry. Using the group therapy during the baby's first year of life may "modify the emergence of autism-related behaviors and symptoms," tip author Jonathan Green, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Manchester in England, said in a roll news release.