Short-term psycho-behavioral training shows improvements in autistic children across multiple domains

This randomized controlled trial enrolled 101 autistic children aged 1-7 years to evaluate a short-term core feature target intervention (CFTI), a psycho-behavioral training program with family involvement delivered over 20 sessions in four weeks. The treatment group (n=56) received CFTI while the control group (n=45) received no treatment or treatment-as-usual (school educational program). Primary outcomes included the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), Ritvo-Freeman Real Life Scale, and Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale (CGI-I), with secondary measures including developmental and intelligence scales and the Psychoeducational Profile-Third Edition (PEP-3).

The intervention showed significant improvements across multiple domains. On the ATEC, the speech/language/communication domain improved with an adjusted β of 2.67. Developmental quotient/intelligence quotient (DQ/IQ) showed improvement with an adjusted β of -5.35. The CGI-I demonstrated improvement with an adjusted β of 0.48. Multiple PEP-3 subscales also showed significant improvements: cognitive verbal/preverbal (adjusted β = -4.53), receptive language (adjusted β = -3.37), fine motor (adjusted β = 4.25), visual-motor imitation (adjusted β = -2.25), social reciprocity (adjusted β = -2.70), and problem behavior (adjusted β = -2.28).

Safety and tolerability data were not reported in the available evidence. Key limitations include the absence of absolute outcome numbers, p-values, and confidence intervals for the reported effect sizes. The study setting and follow-up duration were not reported, and the control condition (no treatment or treatment-as-usual) was heterogeneous. The intervention's short duration (4 weeks) raises questions about sustainability of effects.

For clinical practice, these findings suggest that intensive, short-term psycho-behavioral interventions with family involvement may produce measurable improvements in autistic children across communication, cognitive, and behavioral domains. However, clinicians should interpret these results cautiously given the lack of detailed statistical reporting and unknown long-term effects. The evidence supports further investigation of structured, time-limited interventions but does not yet establish CFTI as a standard of care.