Can Autism be Cured or Managed?

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It depends whom you ask. Some suggest that “recovery” may be a more suitable word to describe best outcomes in autism. An online definition of the word “recover” is to regain a normal position or condition (as of health) such as recovering from a cold (see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recover).  Besides “recovery,” descriptors that have been used include “normal functioning,” “best [or optimal] outcome,” and “rapid learner.” Such restoration to seemingly normal conditions of healthy functioning can and does occur in autism. 

It appears from published reports and clinical observation, that some children may no longer require or qualify for any special education services, no longer need any formal intervention, and ultimately receive all of their educational experiences in a mainstream setting. In other words, they require nothing additional, beyond what would be provided to typically developing children. In addition, significant monies and resources that would have been spent on special education and continuing support services are saved over these individuals’ lifespans.

Some children can progress to a point where they no longer meet criteria for autism, where they appear indistinguishable from their peers, where they are able to function very well in society and in life, and where they can develop meaningful relationships with others.  There are a number of children who received early intensive  intervention based on applied behavior analysis who are now young adults, excelling in high school, dating, driving cars, attending college, getting married, serving our country in the military, holding jobs - in other words, participating fully in life.

Some within the autism community call these best outcome cases "recovery," others insist that further evaluations should have been done to determine if the children retained any residual symptoms of their original condition, anything at all.  Still others speculate that perhaps these children never had autism (despite the fact that these children actually demonstrated behaviors that warranted their diagnosis in the first place).

One can argue that if residual symptoms are only unveiled through extensive paper and pencil evaluations,  are not manifested at all behaviorally,  and are having an insignificant impact on functioning, if any, then how important are they clinically?   But whether or not the best outcome children who are succeeding in school and making friends have some personality variations that could be interpreted as trace elements of their autism, such as shyness or anxiety or focused interest in a particular area, the fact is that such variations are fairly common in the general population - and, more importantly, many people can and do find happiness, independence, and fulfillment in life even if they are shy, anxious, or mildly quirky. 

Perhaps it should simply be said that no one word can be used to accurately and adequately account for the array of treatment outcomes that we see in autism.  The fact is that today, without claiming to have found any biomedical "cure," we can still acknowledge that with effective intervention, autism need not be the forever and ever debilitating condition that prior generations believed it to be.