Relationship with Autistic Children Improves with Communication Therapy

The relationship between a parent and an autistic child is often difficult. Parents often worry that they will never here their child say “I love you.” There has been a strong push from parents and researchers to provide early intervention services to children diagnosed with autism in an effort to improve their communication skills. The idea has been that early intervention and increased communication ability would alleviate some autistic symptoms for the children.

A new study published in The Lancet has determined that improved communication skills do not alleviate autism symptoms in children, but it does improve the parent-child relationship and bond. Symptoms of autism include extremely slow development of language skills, with children often not speaking until after age 3. The children also tend to exhibit repetitive behavior, such as walking around in circles, as well as very poor social skills or an inability to handle social interactions.

British researchers from the University of Manchester conducted the study with 152 autistic preschoolers. Half the children received standard treatment; the other half received “parent-mediated communication-focused (Preschool Autism Communication Trial [PACT]) intervention or treatment” along with the standard treatment. The children were followed over the course of a year.

Dr. Jonathan Green, who worked on the study, said, “The story is kind of mixed — positive and disappointing. On the basis of our findings, we cannot recommend the addition of the PACT intervention to treatment as usual for the reduction of autism symptoms; however, a clear benefit was noted for parent-child dyadic social communication.”

Autism is a disorder that is quickly becoming one of the most common disorders facing children, with about 1 in 100 being diagnosed every year. Treatment is costly and there is still much that is unknown about the disease. Since smaller studies had shown some sign that communication-intensive therapy worked to minimize symptoms, there was hope that this larger-scale study would support earlier findings. While it did not, most parents are still grateful for the increased communication they were able to have with their autistic children, which enhanced their relationship.

Shadra Bruce is a contributing writer for Mental Health News.