Researchers looked at many studies about non-drug therapies for young autistic children. These therapies included behavioral, developmental, and technology-based approaches. They wanted to see if a child's language or thinking skills affected how well these therapies worked.
The review included over 1,900 results from many different studies. Overall, they found that a child's language or thinking scores did not predict how well the therapies worked. This was true for most types of interventions.
However, for technology-based interventions, children with higher thinking scores did see better results. This suggests that tech tools might work differently depending on a child's abilities.
The researchers noted that many studies did not fully report language scores. This makes it hard to draw firm conclusions. They recommend future studies carefully describe participants' language and thinking skills.
This analysis shows that more research is needed to understand which children benefit most from specific therapies. It does not prove that language ability never matters, but it suggests it may not be the main factor for all interventions.