Publications

Professionals working with families who have individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are frequently asked about the possible long-term outcome of their children and the duration of intervention needed to ‘move out of the spectrum’.1,2 Clinicians and therapists often have to predict the subsequent outcome of an individual child based on all the services offered.

Also, families who get a diagnosis of ASD in the Indian context for their child typically raise the question of whether the child will do well and recover completely. They wish to know if the child can attend mainstream school, be self-sufficient, be employed, or get married like most others in the community. This is a natural process of exploration in the pathways to care that most parents go through until they have met many professionals, understood ASD, discussed it with other parents, and started working with their child pragmatically. Predicting outcomes with the data available or acquired during assessments and intervention predominantly focuses on the short term. This can be best defined as improvement in specified skill sets across one-to-two-year durations. However, parents naturally expect an understanding of long-term outcomes across the lifespan.

In this viewpoint, we attempt to present our viewpoint based on our experiences working in Indian academic institutions and hospitals and from the literature review to summarize possible predictors of outcomes that can be useful for clinicians and therapists.

We recognize the view of the neurodiversity advocates disappointed by the focus on therapies that work towards normative outcomes for persons with an ASD diagnosis. We recognize the spirit of such advocacy. However, framing outcome issues from that perspective is beyond the scope of this viewpoint. Here, we focus on the frequently noted requests from the families.