Plenty of autism treatments come with claims for cure or "recovery," but what are the real odds of actually curing a child with autism?
How much will any given child improve over time? According to an article for pediatricians on the American Association of Pediatricians' website, there is a relationship between outcomes, nonverbal IQ and severity of symptoms. A child with a high nonverbal IQ and mild symptoms is more likely to do well than a child with a low IQ and severe symptoms. This seems to be the case regardless of which treatment is used (unless, of course, a child's autistic symptoms are actually caused by food intolerances or other treatable problems). Says developmental pediatrician James Coplan, MD, "The higher the IQ, the faster the atypicality disappears."
It's important to note that autistic children may appear to have a low IQ when they are actually quite intelligent. This is because the most common IQ tests rely on verbal skills, while most people with autism have weak or even nonexistent verbal skills. As a result, it is very important that children with autism be tested for IQ using nonverbal tests, such as the Comprehensive Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence (TONI).
In addition to testing, Dr. Coplan says that a child's progress over time can help parents get a sense of how that child will do overall: "In some ways...the best index of prognosis is not measuring how many hoops he can jump through, but rather watching over time. Watching on any one day is only meaningful [when you have met with that child] over time."
Sources:
Interview with Dr. James Coplan, May 2008.
Coplan, James. "Counseling Parents Regarding Prognosis in Autistic Spectrum Disorder." PEDIATRICS Vol. 105 No. 5 May 2000, p. e65.
