Paper Title
Worthiness of Early Intervention in Toddlers with Autism-Parent Centered Approach

Abstract
Background: Psychosocial treatments are the mainstay of management of Autism in India but the children are let to undergo the diagnostic test only after 4 years of age. This lacks the early identification of children with risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders leading to abstention of children from getting the prompt timely management. Lack of systematic evidence base for the effectiveness on management intervention is also found to be raredue to developmental heterogeneity. I aimed to carry out a holistic intervention on children to determine the overall development in Fine motor skill development, Gross motor skill development, Adaptive skill development, Cognitive development, Social communication development and Social development targeting parents as the mode of communication for their respective children in a randomized design against routine care alone. Methods: The intervention was given in addition to existing care with parent child involvement in all sessions of 4 hours’ duration per day for 6 days and a day off for home activities.It aimed to educate parents and train them in the holistic development tailored to their child's individual competencies. Seventy children with risk for autism spectrum disorder were randomized between this treatment and routine care alone, stratified for age and baseline data. Outcome was measured 4 times at 2 months’ interval from commencement of intervention, using standardized instruments. Results: All subjects studied met full M-CHAT-RTM criteria for risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Treatment and controls had similar routine care during the study period and there were no study dropouts after intervention had started. The active treatment group showed significant improvement compared with controls on the Final outcome measure – Assessment, Evaluation and Programming System for Infants and Children (AEPS®-3) total score in all the areas of Fine Motor, Gross motor, Adaptive skill, Cognitive Development, Social Communication and social development skills. Conclusion: A RandomizedTwo Group Pre Post Comparative Design of this kind in intervening children with risk for ASD is feasible and acceptable to parents. This study suggests significant additional treatment benefits following a targeted group of children less than 2 years when compared with routine care. The study suggests replication on larger samples for a longer time span for more accurate results.The research also encourages further RCT design studies in this area. Keywords - Assessment, Evaluation and Programming System for Infants and Children (AEPS®-3), Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD), The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers Revised, With Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F)TM