Biomarkers Trajectories of Early Intervention in Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

"Intervention sessions are conducted by licensed therapists with a training in applied behavior analysis or behavior analysts. One-to-one interventions for 3 h/week are carried out over a period of 5 months.~The intervention focused on two target symptoms, imitation and joint attention, as two of the pivotal skills in early development. Behavior analytic techniques are used, including discrete trial, shaping for positive reinforcement, systematic prompting and fading procedures, and reinforcement procedures, according to the published manual.~Imitation sessions start with imitation recognition and imitation of familiar actions (gestural and object imitation) and end with the imitation of novel actions. Joint attention evolvs from initiating requests (starting with gaze shift with the child looking away from an interesting object to the adult and back) to coordination of gaze shift, vocalization and gestures through reaching, and pointing and showing behaviors."