Objective: Little is known about outcomes of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) interventions in real-life settings. The main aim of this naturalistic study was to collect real-life data on the actual ASDs treatment practices in Italy.
Methods: A cohort of 48 children undergoing community-based interventions was observed in terms of personal and environmental characteristics, treatment typology and outcomes.
Results: An earlier start of treatment was associated with an improvement of autistic symptoms, independently from symptoms severity (p < 0.05), but not with improvements in terms of intelligence quotient (p = 0.8). Children belonging to lower socioeconomic status families began treatment later (48.0 months) than those belonging to middle (39.8 months) or upper (39.2 months) classes (p < 0.05), and received less hours of treatment.
Conclusion: The study showed that ASDs interventions should be observed not only in experimental settings, but also in naturalistic environments, so to appraise the actual effectiveness of integrating different treatment methods in community settings.
Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders; early treatment; naturalistic settings; predictors of outcome.