Prof Andrew Whitehouse
Head, Autism Research Team Telethon Kids Institute

“Can we prevent disability in autism through infant interventions? Re-writing the rulebook”

Thursday August 24 – 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley Building 401 – Room 001:LT

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterised by deficits in social communication ability and repetitive and restricted behaviours and interests. ASD  typically diagnosed between 3 and 5 years of age, which is when behavioural symptoms are able to be clearly identified without ambiguity. A major problem with this relatively ‘late’ age of diagnosis is that by the time a child has been identified as having ASD, many of the best opportunities to provide lasting change to the developing brain has already passed by. But what if we threw out the rulebook of rigid diagnoses, and created a new paradigm in which we identified infants as young as 12 months of age as being ‘at risk’ of ASD, and provided preventative therapy? Could this new paradigm prevent infants ‘at risk’ of ASD ever developing the disability usually associated with the condition? In this presentation, Andrew will present the world-wide research investigating for this new rule book, and discuss whether there is sufficient evidence for its adoption in clinical practice. He will also outline the trials of ‘very early interventions’ (i.e., in the first year of life) conducted within his own research clinic. The aim of this lecture is to challenge the audience to rethink the current clinical pathway and to start a conversation about how we can best help each child on the spectrum reach their full potential.