Abstract
There is currently no “cure” for autism; although, treatment technologies are rapidly improving and there are reasons to have hope that children with autism can be alleviated of most of their symptoms and enabled to live fulfilling lives. Although there is some debate over this, research is consistent that some individuals do indeed recover from autism. Recovery means that the individual who once had autism is now able to reach average or better developmental levels. Knowing that this “optimal outcome” is possible, readers are invited to learn about the factors that generally predict such a recovery. Most research indicates intelligence, language skills, early intervention, and certain adaptive personal characteristics as the primary factors in recovery for children on the autism spectrum. Individual factors or intervention alone do not tend to be directly predict ASD symptom severity; rather, there are a specific set of adaptive and personal characteristics that, when present, and combined with best practice treatment, lead to optimal outcomes. Models for fostering optimal outcomes for children with ASD are discussed in this chapter.
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Kroncke, A.P., Willard, M., Huckabee, H. (2016). Optimal Outcomes and Recovery. In: Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Contemporary Issues in Psychological Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25504-0_3
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