Newcastle University

Hannah Webb, a trainee psychologist volunteering with Daslne, examines this recent study.

Here is a link to the Daily Mail story published on 22nd January 2015 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2920454/Could-treatment-prevent-autism.html)

 

The newly published study (Green and colleagues) by researchers from Manchester and London evaluated a video-based training for parents of young infants who have a higher chance of developing autism (link below to the academic article).

 

The Daily Mail overstates the findings and also changes interpretation of the interview with the lead researcher. The research found that parents in the therapy group became more non-directive in parenting style, and also found a tendency for some of the infants’ social behaviours to change as predicted, more so than in the control group who did not have the training.

 

But it is important to understand who took part – the infants each had an older sibling with autism.  However, out of the 28 children in the treatment group, a maximum of 5 might be expected to be identified as having ASD at 3 years. The results from the study are reported on a group basis, and do not take into account which children might have an interaction style that triggers concern.  So it cannot be said (as the Daily Mail did) that ‘video therapy may stop these babies developing ASD’.