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...says Geraldine Dawson, lead author of the study and a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "This really underscores the importance of early detection and very early intervention for autism," says Dawson, who is also the chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks...
...other 24 children were assigned to a control group and referred to a variety of therapists in the greater Seattle area. Although they received less intensive therapy than the intervention group, they still got an average of nine hours a week of one-on-one therapy and another nine hours a week in a specialized preschool or other group setting...
After two years, children in the Denver Model group were way ahead of the control group. Their IQ scores had jumped an average of 17.6 points, to a mean of 78.6, which is just within range of normal intelligence. Much of the gain came in their ability to understand and use language. The control group, by contrast, gained just seven points, remaining in the zone of intellectual disability. Children who received the intervention also improved dramatically in what psychologists call "adaptive behavior" - which includes such everyday behaviors and skills as getting dressed, brushing teeth and participating in family meals. Children...
Also notable, seven out of 24 children in the treatment group improved enough to move out of the autism disorder diagnosis and into a milder part of the autism spectrum (Pervasive Developmental Disability, Not Otherwise Specified). Only one child in the control group...
Charlie Lamb was among the 24 children in the treatment group. Though the first few sessions were hard ("He would scream and cry and pound on the door of his room," his father recalls), Charlie soon began to enjoy the playful therapy and made steady progress in speech and behavior. Now 5½, he attends a special preschool and continues to work with therapists on social skills and language. The Lambs expect that Charlie will ultimately attend a regular school. "His autism is subtle," says Susan Lamb. "Most people say they can't tell." But like most children with autism...