Parents playing intensively with their babies could ward off autism – Study
Researchers found that children exhibiting early signs of the disorder could reverse the symptoms if they took part in a play program with their parents. ‘We are curing their developmental delays,’ one researcher said.
Parents may be able to slow or even stop the symptoms of autism in their children — without medication.
Playing intensively and purposely with babies as young as six months showing signs of autism — like lack of focus and delayed speech — can help children’s brain patterns become more normal, researchers from University of California, Davis, and Duke University found.
Sally Rogers of UC Davis and Dr. Geraldine Dawson of Duke developed a therapeutic play program based on the Early Start Denver Model, a behavioral curriculum effective in children with autism. When they taught the program to parents of infants ages 6 months to 15 months, six of the seven babies studied had normalized their learning and language skills by age 2 or 3.
“We are curing their developmental delays,” Rogers told Time.com.
More research is needed, on more children and for longer periods of time, before this practice can be touted as a cure for autism.
But the results suggest that autism isn’t genetically destined to happen and can be slowed or even halted. Parents may play a key role.
The new findings will be in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.