ReviewAutism research and treatment2020
Is Earlier Better? The Relationship between Age When Starting Early Intervention and Outcomes for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Selective Review.
Review in Autism research and treatment, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early Identification of Autism Using Cry Analysis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Retrospective and Prospective Studies.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Peer-Mediated Social Skills Interventions in Primary School Settings for Autistic Children in the Light of the ICF Bio-psycho-social Model. A Systematic Review.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Improving neurodevelopment in Zika-exposed children: A randomized controlled trial.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Trial
- Parental Concerns About their Child's Development During the First Year of Life and a Subsequent Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Age at Autism Diagnosis in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa): Exploring the Association With Family Well-Being.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Using eye tracking to explore the relationship between autism traits, joint attention, cognition and adaptive functioning in preschool children.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2026Article
- Developmental Trajectories in Young Autistic Children Receiving Parent-Mediated Intervention Through In-Person and Telehealth Service Delivery Models: A Naturalistic, Nonrandomized Clinical Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Short report: Disparities in hours of applied behavior analysis services for Medicaid-enrolled autistic youth.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Adult Clinical Outcomes, Diagnostic Loss and Predictors in Individuals Diagnosed With Autism in Childhood.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Investigating the Predictive Validity of the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 in Children at Elevated Likelihood for Autism.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Parent-mediated early intervention in infants and toddlers at elevated likelihood for autism: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- A pilot randomized controlled study of a digital art therapy paradigm for children with ASD: integrating pivotal response treatment into video animation and physical model design.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Microglia: Mediators of experience-driven corrective neuroplasticity.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2025Article
- AMPK Activation by ENERGI Ameliorates Behavioral and Synaptic Deficits in a Mouse Model of Autism.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Probability of Intervention Benefit in the Early Start Denver Model.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- An analysis of the real world performance of an artificial intelligence based autism diagnostic.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Pre-K-12 Teachers' Views on ASD+ADHD: Prevalence Estimates and Teaching Preparedness.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Autism Observation Scale for Infants: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in Samples at Increased Likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorders.Review journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Review
- The unique cognitive phenotype of ASD + ADHD co-occurrence: evidence for planning and attention deficits as a differentiating approach.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Speech paired vagus nerve stimulation restores neural sound processing in a rat model of autism.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although the conventional wisdom is that "earlier is better" when it comes to intervention for children with ASD, it is not clear what evidence exists to support this notion. This review examined a group of studies that addressed outcomes for young children with ASD who started early intervention at a range of ages. The review was selective by including only papers that examined the age of initiation of treatment as well as baseline cognitive, language, or adaptive level and, in addition, employed a method to control for the covariance between early ability level and age of beginning intervention. Fourteen studies were identified and then compared on methods and outcomes. The support for "earlier is better" was mixed, but it was clear that complex relationships among predictor variables need to be explored in order to understand the role of age of starting early intervention for later outcomes.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.